I guess RM9 is now here. If I just purchased RM8 in the last few months, do I still have to buy a new version again?
As a previous registrant, looks like you’'ll save a minimum of $9.95 for the upgrade after March 6th (save $19.95 thru that date).
Renee posted on Facebook that RM9 keys were sent out already to anyone that purchased the program from Jan 1, 2023 on. So if you bought it since the beginning of the year, then your should have been sent a key.
Weird Rootsmagic 7 was 7 years old before Rootsmagic 8 came out. And Rootsmagnic is only 1.5 years old. Will 8 be updated in the future or have the buyers of 8 just been test subjects for 9?
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Not likely, While 7 had a couple of minor updates after 8 was released, that was because of the customer relations disaster that 8 was. RM8 was never touted to offer significant new features and never did fulfill the feature set from RM7 - it was all about cross-platform code development on a new platform. RM9 does have a couple of significant new features, e.g., Saved Criteria for Searches and Groups, Associations and Colorcode Sets and has restored features such as Spell Check (was in RM7) and HTML website generator (RM6 was the last to support it). The new Notes Editor seems to me to be a fix for one of RM8’s failings (that would fit your “test subject” role).
So 8 was a bad buy. And the buyers of 8 should get 9 as if it were a major update.
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I bought RM8 less than three months ago, and it looks like I have to pay to upgrade?! C’mon Man! I understand that development costs money, but you should have a better upgrade option. Six months would be more reasonable. Some vendors offer 12 months of free upgrades. Very hard for me to recommend the product to others when you treat customers like this.
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I feel conned, to be honest. Sort of wish that I still had the family origins program that came free on a magazine disk in 2000. I actually deleted the email offering RM9 discounts as I thought it must be phishing! If they can’t fix RM8 after all those years of development why bother with the very new RM9?
So is RM8 analogous to Windows 8, the successor to Windows 7 that was so poorly received and had such a short lifetime that they named its successor Windows 10, skipping Windows 9 to try to remove some of the stink from the Windows 8 brand?
I’m glad I didn’t jump right into RM8 before the bugs were ironed out. But now I have to wait for some dot releases to see where 9 is going.
Has RM9 fixed all the “customer relations disasters” of RM8 or did it just add new features and leave all the problems as is?
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To be fair, there is a good deal of fixing between 8.0 and 8.5. We’ll see how 9 is received over time. Fundamentally, the UI is unchanged which means its lovers will be happy and its haters will remain disgruntled. The latter may set that aside somewhat if the new and improved features meet their needs.
Yeah, disgruntled…that’s what I am…I knew there was a word for it! 
So, if you’re not disgruntled, are you gruntled?
I think they over-corrected for their RM8 release announcement, delays, and including RM8 with RM7 purchases that took like a year(?) to actually come out. But they should have ran the approach the same way as it became evident an RM9 release was imminent. In October, they could have announced an expected release of RM9 nearing the end of Q1 and that purchases of RM8 after January 1 will include a free upgrade to RM9. Any purchases prior to January 1 will have a $20 upgrade fee to RM9 from RM8.
Maybe lessons learned for 10. That said, and frankly speaking. You may find RM8 has everything you need and that it’s feasible to wait to upgrade until 10 releases. Also, even counting the cost of RM8, adding the cost of RM9 @ $20 is still a great price for the product. In my opinion it’s the best program on the market today. It’s a small dev team and those monies ensure we keep getting the software updated into the future. Think of it as your local small business. They may be pricier (RM is not, but for the principle of the arguement), but it’s nice to support them and keep a good thing going.
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If my local small business treated me this disrespectfully, I would be recommending that people avoid that business, too.
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Actually RM7 does everything I need.
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I purchased my RootsMagic 8 in March of 2022 and I have not received any notice that I am entitled to a free upgrade4. Guess I will have to write to them.
I totally agree. When I purchased RootsMagic 8, It was at the beginning of last year.
I was under the impression that it was a new version.
They were still working the bugs out of it. As far as I know they have not worked all the bugs out of 8 yet.
Don’t know how you can put version 9 when version 8 was never working correctly for everyone.
I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
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I think you way over estimate how many people were having problem.
I just went and watched the video on the new features in RootsMagic 9. I am amazed. I recant my bitching that I previously did. I will spend the $20 for a for RM9.
I am in the same frame of mind as all these comments, as I have been using RM since it first came on the Market, have always had good support, it is quite a powerful program, and so did not hesitate to upgrade to RM8 when it was released although there were several blips, which is why I still use RM7, except there is no support for that now, in just a few months RM8 has become obsolete, will RM9 go down the same route? I am very reluctant in upgrading whilst there are folk who say the discount price is good, in todays situation, even a few Pounds/Dollars can be a struggle. I am not sure if I (we) have not got caught in a “Captive audience”, all the hints is a blessing, especially for researchers who are no longer as mobile, more like “armchair research”. My worry is if we don’t upgrade, what happens to our trees and synced to other sites? I have often recommended it to friends, although I am reluctant to do so now, it might be forcing us to go else where, which would be a great loss after 20 odd years.