alt Hacker NewsIt's quite the dark-pattern to allow you to download it and scan for free, without any clear indication that it's a paid product, and then ambush you with a purchase dangling the space savings in front of your face.
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Hard to imagine anyone less likely to ponder on - and implement - any kind of "dark pattern" than John Siracusa. Maybe the landing page could be re-ordered slightly to state that part of the FAQ - which is very clear - further up, but I doubt that there's a malicious bone in that man's body.
I don’t understand. It mentions multiple times it’s not free right on the linked page. And if you open the App Store link? It also mentions it’s a paid app.
What am I missing?
It's a couple Q's in on the page:
Q: How do I pay for Hyperspace? Hyperspace is a free download in the Mac App Store. Once downloaded, it’s free to scan an unlimited number of files. Scanning will let you know how much space is eligible to be reclaimed.
If you decide you want to reclaim that space, you will need to pay for Hyperspace using the purchase button that appears after a successful scan or by selecting “Purchase Hyperspace…” from the “Hyperspace” menu in the menu bar.
This is how basically all Mac software worked in my youth. Maybe we should return to the heady days of shareware
Agreed. Are there any open source alternatives for this?
If anything, it's the opposite of a dark pattern: you get to see if it'll provide any value for you without paying a dime. It's a far better proposition than paying up only to find out that it won't free up any space for you. The linked site is very clear about how the pricing works.