Comments on: Pivotal Tracker: Fantastic app, shame it’s free

By: Work At Home

Work At Home — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:58:15 +0000

This is the first time I see someone complaint about getting something for free.

By: synapticmishap

synapticmishap — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 18:16:33 +0000

Totally agree. Even though I'm developing desktop software, I love Pivotal Tracker as I'm trying to implement bits of Agile in my development.

The conclusion that some software shouldn't be free is something I really feel strongly about. The paradox is that I'm reluctant to pay for software myself, although I suspect that's just because I don't have any kind of income right now!

There seems to be this whole idea that because there are all these startups like Facebook, every app you use should be free. As you say, there are loads of advantages to an app costing money. I also think there's an interesting psychological reponse - an app feels different to me once I've paid for it. I'm invested in it. And that means I've got a real emotional bond with it.

And that's a great thing. Thanks for a thought provoking article.

By: ChrisMDP

ChrisMDP — Tue, 19 May 2009 03:33:28 +0000

I agree with you that it's a great service – so great I would prefer to pay for it than use it for free. I realise I have no right to demand anything from a free service, but to request to pay for a service I rely on in return for certain guarantees is not an unreasonable one.

I'm sure an API call every 20 minutes isn't going to stretch their system. But I take your point that that's a little too frequent. I've reduced it to every few hours.

By: somedudde

somedudde — Tue, 19 May 2009 02:36:45 +0000

wow. mr. paranoid.
So you'll take that free service, use it for no fee, but slam it with a full backup every twenty minutes? Thanks alot. Would you mind getting the hell off? Some of us appreciate what Pivotal Tracker is doing. They are gathering a lot of steam and a strong user base. Most great, innovative software starts free and then evolves into a revenue generating model. They are still building the foundation and not ready for thick-headed, self-important, over critical people like yourself to start demanding certain features and changes. Sure would be nice if you could reduce that backup to, say, nightly? Sure you might lose half a day, should they go down, but at least you won't be the reason they went down.

people amaze me!

By: ChrisMDP

ChrisMDP — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 19:21:24 +0000

We've rolled our own basic PM system, so we could knock an importer that could do this quite quickly.

By: leo

leo — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 19:13:55 +0000

What 's the system can import stories?

By: craig

craig — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 15:49:25 +0000

That's the great thing about software development….someone will probably clone it, if there's not something out there already.

By: ChrisMDP

ChrisMDP — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 03:40:20 +0000

The Pivotal guys do sounds like a great bunch of people, but it's not really specific to them – I'd have the same feelings about any similar service. Thanks for the reassurance though.

By: Shane

Shane — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 01:00:48 +0000

Hi, I have been using Pivotal Tracker for four years now, and personally I know the developers and the owner of pivotal labs. So I can tell you that they are not going anywhere for a while. I think it is free simply because they don't need the money right now, which is probably why they don't make it open source.

By: Microdermabrasion

Microdermabrasion — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:45:33 +0000

You got excellent writing skills. Awesome article. I enjoyed every word of it. Thanks:)