just curious...

[bandog]

how many copies of total commander have you sold? i guessing it must of been a really nice number

[poiuytr]

I have not sold any of it

[pdavit]

Well, my suggestion to friends made Christian richer 5x$28 (plus 1 for my copy)… oh, you do the math!

Remark: I don’t really like the term “made Christian richer”, it doesn’t sound right! TC has the best f….. ratio of quality over cost. Not to mention that all updates are free of charge! For the cost of double-CD I made my life so much easier for the past 3-4 years (I exclude the unregistered period!) and certainly for the future!

[soreno]

I bought my license in the summer of 2001.
The "license plate" reads:
#59022 Personal License

I don't know if there are any gaps in the numbering scheme.

If you can get all registered user to leave a note in this thread you could count them..

If it was possible I would buy some stocks in "Ghisler corporation"

[lzvk25]

I agree, let's do an IPO at Wall Street !!!

Although, on the other hand we should be careful that there is not another crash at the stock market. And, besides, I do not think Christian would like to have the Wall Street monkeys on his back every quarter, and promising always big profits for that kind of people.

[norfie]

[ghisler(Author)]

Total Commander is selling quite well, that's why I don't need to charge for upgrades and don't need to cripple any functions in the demo version.

[Hacker]

don't need to cripple any functions in the demo version.

I thought that was one of the reasons why it sells so well...(?) IIRC you said you didn't cripple TC because it may "repel" people who might have registered TC in the future otherwise...

TIA
Roman

[soreno]

I think that cripled software encurages use of cracks.

[Hacker]

Well, every program that isn't a "full" version (but you can get a crack for it) encourages the use of cracks.

Roman

[JackFoo]

Heh, cracking software doesn't really need any encouragement... Once there is a difference (any) between shareware and paid for version, be it lack or features or even a simple naming configuration there will also be a crack.

One thing that makes me appreciate TC's protection is the key scheme, crackers can't make key-gen's which makes the only available option be an executable patch -> you (as a user) aren't sure the key protection was the only thing that changed once the patch is applied. There is also the ASPack and crc checking which are an overkill really and aren't need (IMO) given ASPack is completely broken (as in has tons of available extraction programs) and if you already opted for a patch crc check won't stop you. So maybe TC would be better off with only the key scheme this way I would be able to use it with the executable uncompressed...

P.S. Does anyone know why Christian used ASPack? (Christian?)

EDIT: why is the word key_gen is replaced with ******?

Cheers.

[Black Dog]

[face=courier]On 22-05-2003 17:45:02 +0000 JackFoo wrote:

J> So maybe TC would be better off with only the key scheme
J> this way I would be able to use it with the executable
J> uncompressed...

Better compression level, may be... Christian wants Commander distributive to fit single floppy, you know. So may be executable takes less place there ASPack-compressed, I can't say for sure.
Anyway, you can ask Christian to send you uncompressed executable (if you do not trust "available extraction programs" completely ;).

J> P.S. Does anyone know why Christian used ASPack? (Christian?)

It means "why not UPX or something else"? ;)[/face]

[JackFoo]

Anyway, you can ask Christian to send you uncompressed executable (if you do not trust "available extraction programs" completely ;).

I could but it probably won't help because it (TC) also checks it's CRC which is supposed to be a CRC of a compressed file... And Christian won't "hack" his own program just for me (heh)

It means "why not UPX or something else"? ;)

Basically yes; ASPack doesn't really offer security and UPX is freeware (GPL actually). For example some test:

Code: Select all

totalcmd.exe  executable  tests
-------------------------------
uncompressed: ~ 2,080,804 bytes
aspacked    :     691,748 bytes
upxed(best) : ~   688,676 bytes

Note the [~], I put those because unpacking TC could have changed the file... I didn't check the memory footprint because TC won't run unpacked (well it runs for about 5sec's and then TC's CRC check kicks in announcing possible Virus corruption).

Cheers.

[Black Dog]

[face=courier]On 23-05-2003 00:05:59 +0000 JackFoo wrote:

J> it probably won't help because it (TC) also checks it's CRC
J> which is supposed to be a CRC of a compressed file...

Hmm, are you sure? ;)

J> And Christian won't "hack" his own program just for me (heh)

JFYI, this "hack" is absolutely official service from Christian, on demand, of course. Just do it! %)

J> Basically yes; ASPack doesn't really offer security and UPX
J> is freeware (GPL actually).

Actually are you sure this is ASPack, not ASProtect? Solodovnikov positions the last one as big boys toy... :)

J> I put those because unpacking TC could have changed the
J> file...

AFAIK one can unASPack Commander rather "correctly". Depends on tool you use.

BTW, did you used ASPack "Maximum compression" (I'm not completely sure it sounds exactly like this) function in your test?[/face]

[JackFoo]

Hmm, are you sure? ;)

Quite, unless it also supports the unpacked CRC in which case I might have made a not very good job of unpacking it.

JFYI, this "hack" is absolutely official service from Christian, on demand, of course. Just do it! %)

Nice! I'll definitely give Christian a call.

Actually are you sure this is ASPack, not ASProtect? Solodovnikov positions the last one as big boys toy... :)

Not 100% sure, but it sure looks like ASPack.

AFAIK one can unASPack Commander rather "correctly". Depends on tool you use.

I'll email you.

BTW, did you used ASPack "Maximum compression" (I'm not completely sure it sounds exactly like this) function in your test?

I didn't ASPack the executable, I took TC's actual size as a reference.

Cheers.