To whom it may concern-
<soapbox>
If you've read any of my posts, you hopefully realize my style is not to scold people, but to try to help. I believe we are all put on this Earth to help each other, not compete with each to gather the most $$$ and die with it.
Anyone who complains about spending ~$6 to make a >$170 device and investment work properly should have their head examined. I guarantee most of you have bought $199 phones and have spent a few dollars in the App stores buying programs to make them more fun or useful in your life. That's what Richard's programs do for Vera.
Anyone who complains about not getting more than 4 PLEG devices for the extremely small license fee doesn't understand technically why you wouldn't want more than 4 PLEGs in most instances. A VeraLite simply wouldn't be able to handle it due to the limited memory in these units and the minimum memory footprint of each PLEG device. In theory, one could do everything they want in one PLEG device. Multiple PLEGs are more for organizational and isolation purposes. Many of us use the best practice of dividing our HA functions by a PLEG, ie, all lighting control in one PLEG, HVAC/environmental control in another, Security control in another. That leaves you one more PLEG for "miscellaneous". I'm sure Richard didn't simply pick the number 4 out of thin air. If you have a full Vera3 unit, then yes, you could get away with having more than 4 PLEG devices without possibly consuming all your memory. If that's you, then go for it and buy the extra license.
If you're not a programmer, then you have no idea how much effort and hours, days, weeks and months go into developing a program that will be used by the public. You have to spend hours investigating every possible use case and bug that is reported. It's obvious Richard constantly updates and maintains this program, even when it was free. The man deserves to be compensated, he's worked hard for that right. It makes absolutely zero difference whether the program was free before or not, many open source or fee-free projects eventually go to a paid support or commercial version model.
And finally, as Richard previously alluded to, it's a free market. Just as one doesn't have to buy a car, they can simply take free or public transportation. Both will get you from point A to point B. But you will more than likely enjoy the ride better in the car. Try doing anything useful with your Vera without PLEG. If you're a programmer you can do it, but if you're not, have fun while you write and debug LUA code. The fact a plugin like PLEG even has to exist is because MCV put out a half-baked product.
I for one think he's charging too little given the fact a Vera can't even do conditional statements right out of the box, which to me is a joke given the sophistication one needs to competently do home automation. Again, blame MCV for putting out a half-baked product.
</soapbox>
-TC
