LogoTechInc
New Member
Getting tired of the constant increase in monthly cost of my Rip software. Anyone have any Free replacements for SAI Flexi? 99.99/month CAD is getting out of hand.
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SAI Flexi Replacment
- Thread starter LogoTechInc
- Start date
WildWestDesigns
Active Member
No such thing that I'm aware of (although didn't HP have a free Flexi Basic license or something like that at one time?).
There was an OSS RIP program (can't remember the name, was on sourceforge for awhile), but last I looked at it, hasn't had development since 2015. Of course, can't find it now since I can't remember the name, so it may no longer have it's repo there.
Monthly increases are just going to be the thing with SaaS. Eventually that happens with all of them, some may have a quicker increase interims compared to others, but that is just the way it's going to be for those that do that model of license (pretty soon it will be the OS as well, fun times coming).
Solventinkjet
DIY Printer Fixing Guide
Subscriptions are annoying for sure but it's not all Flexi being greedy. All of the technologies they license to make it work are ongoing so they have to keep paying to keep them working. The only way to not go out of business is move to a subscription model. It's also why you don't see a lot of open source options, there's no one to pay for licenses to be able to render fonts or use spectrophotometer APIs etc. without getting into legal issues.
WildWestDesigns
Active Member
They would have to clean room reverse engineer. Problem is the amount of hardware that one has to deal with and of different specs. It has been done, we do have OSS embroidery software, but it is a much larger pool of users/testers to pull from as well.
factorywrapsco
New Member
Years ago with used Flexi and spent some scratch. I abandoned it and went 120% AI and Photo Shop. Never looked back!
WildWestDesigns
Active Member
At $100 a month, to get the entry level of Flexi (was what around 2800?), to reach price parity only would be well within the 2-3 yr dev time that used to be between major versions. So at that point, it was significantly cheaper. Plus when upgrading to the next version, it wasn't another 2800, there was usually a discount especially for x-1, x-2 maybe less, may or may not have an x-3 depends on the software. I think if it was 70 per month, there would be a push, maybe favoring the sub a bit. But again, the extra full version would have been at a cheaper rate (usually) compared to subscription were at best it's going to be at the current rate to infinity. Now prices on the perpetual go up as well, but typically there is still that discounted rate. About the only rate that one could help to get a discount on if one pays for the year in full versus monthly.
Being on the subscription isn't hardly ever cheaper in the long run and being on the latest and greatest isn't always the greatest for everyone. Features get deprecated and even removed and if one is forced to always be on the latest, that could be no bueno for the user.
Does commercial software need to be on a subscription basis? Yes and no, older software is having a harder and harder time to add features that really attract users to get the latest version. So there is that. A lot of older programs could go with a refactor of the code base, doubt that will happen, but that would for sure be something that would help sell compared to programs that feel like things are just being bolted on in a hacky way.
balstestrat
Problem Solver
What printer make and model exactly do you have?
Graphic Extremes
Knows To Little
Onyx installs the software so you can not keep uninstalling and installing the software to use it for free.
Onyx thrive is a one time purchase that you do not have to upgrade as long as you do not need any new features. It keeps working.
Onyx thrive is a one time purchase that you do not have to upgrade as long as you do not need any new features. It keeps working.
JBurton
Signtologist
There is trickery to be had if you want to get around that.
Graphic Extremes
Knows To Little
I have look hard for the key that the software embeds, I have removed all traces of the program from the registry and still will say that the trail has expired.
JBurton
Signtologist
Ok, I'm not condoning stealing trials like this, but setting up a virtual machine and bridging the network connection to the real one should be fairly trivial. Of course you could alternatively just reinstall windows. It would all depend on the what actual mechanism they are using to keep up with who's installed a trial. Heck, they may just be using you windows login email address added to a list, mac address, ip address (this one would be silly), HDD ID values, or even just your company name/phone number used to enter your info to download.
But hey, I could be wrong, wouldn't be the first time...