[cooper12]

Hmm I didn't think about that. I guess that's a genuine option for popular applications. Personally, for some unpopular applications I've tried to compile, I just gave up if the standard `./configure && make` didn't work.

As for your second point, I think it comes down to two things: if the user's time is more valuable than their money, and two, if they can get support for the paid product (at least that's how I've seen some products doing it), so it's not as if the paid is without it's benefits. Your Hexchat example shows how important it is to not alienate your users though.