Where a person lives has little to do with what they know. Living in San Fran doesn't, by nature, impart any sort of knowledge about the software industry.

The point I was making is simply this: Know the upgrade policies of the company before you invest in their products. I took it for granted that as an existing customer who was previously given an upgrade path to a new version that I would continue to have an upgrade path to future versions. KE made their product no more attractive to me than their competitors' products, which is largely why they lost my business. There were other reasons, yes, but the devil you know and all of that

Upgrade policies from whole version to whole version are common in the software industry. Want the most obvious example? Windows Vista.

I think it's great that KE has allowed 3.0 owners to get the update to 3.5 free. From what I've read, 3.0 was a marginal product that didn't deliver what it promised.