Would you like a CD with that?

[Albert Wiersch]

When purchasing software online, how important to you is the option to pay extra for a physical CD in addition or in place of downloading the software electronically?

[epicure]

I think it important to have a CD as backup: disks fail, and if you have the important software items on CD you are half-way to getting back to the job in hand!

The suggested $10 sounds rather high to me, though.

[TomasF]

I think it important to have a CD as backup: disks fail, and if you have the important software items on CD you are half-way to getting back to the job in hand!

Most systems have shipped with CD or DVD burners for years now, and a bulk CD/DVD burner costs almost nothing. Presumably burning ALL your downloaded purchased software on one or a couple of CDs/DVDs as backup yourself is even more time, cost, and space efficient for most people.

[g4mby]

When purchasing software online, how important to you is the option to pay extra for a physical CD in addition or in place of downloading the software electronically?

How long would the CD be current for anyway?

With a program like HTML Validator, updates are frequent so even if a CD was bought or supplied it may not be up-to-date at the time it was needed and a download of the current version would still be neccessary. For very large programs I might consider buying a CD but not for a program of just a couple of megabytes.

All my downloaded software is backed up to floppy, ZIP or another PC as appropriate. I would be very unlucky if they all failed at the same time.

[Albert Wiersch]

How long would the CD be current for anyway?

With a program like HTML Validator, updates are frequent so even if a CD was bought or supplied it may not be up-to-date at the time it was needed and a download of the current version would still be neccessary. For very large programs I might consider buying a CD but not for a program of just a couple of megabytes.

Right. I do not think it would be a good idea to offer a CD, but some people have asked for it. It seems like it wouldn't be worth the time and trouble to offer it for a product like CSE HTML Validator which is usually a quick download anyway (and you get the latest version).

Some people might like it more if it included a nice looking box like it does when you buy software from a store, but again, I don't think that would be worth spending the time on. I'd rather add more features and even better syntax checking to HTML Validator.