Subscription Status Update

[alefattorini (Alessio Fattorini)]

It’s been a while since our NethServer Subscription launch!
What’s happened in the meantime?

After a month we have

• 51 users registered
• 13 trials active

Plans sold:

• 15 Crostino
• 1 Lasagna

There’s something odd, we received 4,276 visits on my.nethserver.com in the last month. Something 130/140 per day and just a few of them have registered to the portal.

A lot of attention but people don’t move forward.

I have to be honest I expected better

But It’s just a start and we have room for improvement. We need to improve definitely the subscription and upgrade process, making it smoother

I’m planning some improvements:

• subscription module installed by default on 7.5 (no manual installation required anymore)
• more info in the Subscription dashboard box
• email notifications when you register a new trial and when is going to expire
• creating a blog post about monitoring and alarms (still some doubts about it)

I need your help . Do you have any other idea to improve the process? How can we make it more attractive?
Which kind of services can we add? Supporting migration from 6.9 to 7.5 with a professional support?

[EddieA (Eddie Atherton)]

Plans sold:

15 Crostino
1 Lasagna

Is that it. That surprises me.

I know that the Community Edition is completely OpenSource, but I would have thought more people would value the commitment (and company) behind this project. Oh Well (Part 2. )
Cheers.

[bobtskutter (bob)]

I see this as a bit of a Catch-22 problem.
I’m a home user, I don’t have lots of money to spend on IT subscriptions so the Crostino subscription is the one I’d choose.
But…the NethServer community is so good at answering questions the only real benefit I would get is stable updates. So, as I see it, the Crostino subscription is really for tested updates. However, thanks to virtualization and ZFS, I can snapshot my NethServer and install “untested updates”, then role back if things go bad. (Paying 48euro saves a lot of time and effort, but I’m an IT geek, so I can do all that stuff).

There is another CentOS based all-in-one server platform, which I’ve used for ages. They have a subscription service that adds an extra repository with additional software. However they’ve put their mail server into the subscription model and don’t (or didn’t) have a plan for what happens to your mail data when the subscription period is over.

Perhaps the way to encourage people to take out subscriptions is to offer additional features in the subscription service. E.g. improved content filtering (with a system that could be applied in schools), a multidrop POP3 connector (I’ve built one but it’s a bit of a lash-up ), Docker, commercial antivirus support.

I suppose the trick is to provide enough functionality to have a working product, and then offer upgrades to encourage people to part with their cash.

But please be aware that however it’s done, I suggest you have a clear statement about what happens when the subscription period is over - I’d hate for my server to get bricked after 12months!

FYI, I’ll be buying a Crostino subscription later on.
regards
Bob

[davidep (Davide Principi)]

Paying 48euro saves a lot of time and effort, but I’m an IT geek, so I can do all that stuff

The Crostino plan (48 EUR/yr) idea was born during the last Community Conference: a paid access to YUM repositories where it’s reasonably safe to switch on automatic updates because someone manages infrastructure and repository contents for you. IT geeks can have fun and do it by themselves

Perhaps the way to encourage people to take out subscriptions is to offer additional features in the subscription service.

As a devvelopper I don’t like this approach. The more branches, the more bugs. Also support people know it well!

There are only little differences between Community and Subscription (required by the different YUM repo configuration). Where did we hit a #bug? In those differences! SOGO (and AD LDAP clients) not working after upgrade

As a devvelopper I’d prefer a completely Open Source product, where additional services are sold apart. Less lines of code, less bugs, less test-cases, less support loads.

But please be aware that however it’s done, I suggest you have a clear statement about what happens when the subscription period is over - I’d hate for my server to get bricked after 12months!

I think that an expired subscription simply does not get updated any more. It is documented here:

http://docs.nethserver.org/en/v7/subscription.html#removing-a-subscription

[alefattorini (Alessio Fattorini)]

Perhaps the way to encourage people to take out subscriptions is to offer additional features in the subscription service. E.g. improved content filtering (with a system that could be applied in schools), a multidrop POP3 connector (I’ve built one but it’s a bit of a lash-up ), Docker, commercial antivirus support.

Interesting approach, thanks for the advice and I understand your concerns.

[alefattorini (Alessio Fattorini)]

We found a bug in our upgrade process, specifically in the Paypal button.
In the last two weeks, it wasn’t allowed to upgrade your trials!
Merely, clicking on the Paypal button nothing happened.
It could explain a bit our numbers but it’s not obviously an answer to this:

There’s something odd, we received 4,276 visits on my.nethserver.com in the last month. Something 130/140 per day and just a few of them have registered to the portal.