If you weren’t backing up the location that contained your XML file, there’s no automatic regeneration capability, but any job log from a previous run would have all the information you needed to recreate the settings of the definition file, except the schedules — but those aren’t in the XML file either.
Is everyone going to keep using Reflect if the license changes to a subscription model? I've noticed a lot of software moving in that direction lately.
Yes, I'm also watching Hasleo as a possible transition from Reflect Free. Hasleo seems to get better and better with each new version. But the question is what will happen with their licensing policy when Hasleo reaches the required level of performance & quality.
Asking myself the same question. I guess everyone who is working hard to develop a good product needs to make money one day…
Nope. I'll use it until then but will drop it if they force a subscription. My reasoning is that if I lose my job and can't pay the subscription I would no longer be able to make new backups. That situation would bring enough problems without having to deal with that on top of it. I'm sure someone will have a rebuttal but it won't change my mind.
I'm spoiled since most of my Macrium licenses have come gratis from BETA efforts with the company over the years... BUT, the distance between Macrium REFLECT and the free Hasleo Backup Suite have closed significantly in the past year. For my immediate use, either can do the job pretty well at the moment. I'm still working closely with both sets of Developers... Personally, I don't care for subscription-based licensing, mostly due to limited income (us older folks have those kind of issues ).
Your efforts to help others has probably saved them from losing some customers. They should be giving you free licenses.
No company can offer a product in the long term without something in return. That's why I also pay for the software. The payment is also a recognition of the performance of the developer of the software.
I just have one license which I create the bootable version of Macrium Home on and use it on all my computers, I never install it even other than when I need to update the USB.
Just for the record, that is a violation of the license agreement. Paid version Rescue Media is only allowed to be used on systems that have a license for that version, or on new PCs for the purpose of permanently migrating from a licensed system.
Soon, they will probably have a subscription for their rescue media, with a fixed number of times it can be used. The more you pay for your subscription, the more times it will boot and work. This would fit in well with their new business model
So, I have a couple of questions. Are we not allowed to continue to use Reflect 8 Home Edition even after they change their business model? And, if we can't use Reflect after that, what would take the place of Reflect's Guardian? Or if Windows' Security tamper protection enough?
Reflect’s non-subscription licenses are perpetual, so you can continue using those licenses forever. From a practical standpoint, the usable lifespan might be limited by future changes to Windows that might break older Reflect versions that are no longer supported unless you refrain from updating to new Windows versions. However, I believe even Reflect V6 still works on Windows 11, and that came out roughly a decade ago now.
I plan to use the current version until it stops working or some major bug/security flaw is discovered. Then I'll probably migrate to Hasleo as many others in the forum.
There is a lot of talk about it on the Macrium forum about Reflect moving to a subscription license model, but I haven't seen anything from Macrium to suggest that it's happening. The software world seems to be moving their licenses to a subscription model. I don't think any end user likes it. I guess times are tough, even for software developers. It's going to make it very expensive for people to maintain their computers if the software world keeps moving towards a subscription model. Think about the ongoing costs.
I think both options should be available to let people buy the type of license they prefer. Some may like the subscription. As I stated earlier I prefer the permanent license as I don't want all of my stuff to stop working if I lose my income. The problem that has been the usual is when a company starts offering the subscription license they raise the price of the permanent license to move people off of it. The problem I see with Macrium is that they seem to run about 4 years on a version. Probably a lot of money upfront and not much until the next release. Maybe they would see a more steady cashflow if they shorten the development cycle on the permanent license. Pricing would have to be determined if they did that. People would probably expect it to be a little lower or maybe offer them some good upgrade deals if they had to pay twice as often.
Reflect Home added a subscription option recently, and all other editions that represent the bulk of Macrium’s business went subscription-only as of V8. That’s my thought process, but I people probably said that about Netflix, Spotify, etc. when they were used to buying movies and music with a single payment, and here we are. And some people here gripe that ~$80 USD seems like a lot of money for a perpetual license to back up data that’s important to them. Seems there’s a market for paying a small amount forever rather than a larger amount once. I dislike subscriptions myself, but I increasingly seem to be in the minority there.
I was aware of the subscription option for Reflect Home. I wasn't aware of the other editions being subscription only. Directory Opus recently went to a subscription pricing model with the release of version 13. Here is an interesting response from one of the developers explaining the positive reasons for the subscription pricing model change. Some may agree or disagree with him. I sort of understand what he is saying.
I would be interested to see the amount of normal users vs. company/business users macrium has. Most company's make the money with business sells which are used to pay annually. If they only have a few "normal" users maybe just reduce the time of support you can get for free and just stick with the one time buy system.
@Hadron - big difference in what Leo (Directory Opus) is saying and Macrium. Leo says when you give up the subscription, you keep what you have and get no more updates. Macrium says the product will revert to RESTORE ONLY when the subscription lapses... that makes it basically useless as you move forward as far as an imaging solution is concerned.
