1. I store my project/workspace files under ST's root installation folder and the upgrade DELETED them all
2. I'm running ST on Win10 and after the upgrade, ST4 is now installed under "C:\Program Files\Sublime Text 3". You would think that there'd be a post-install script to check executable path for 3 and change it to 4.
They should have released a small ST3 update that detects if the license would be valid for ST4 and prompts the frictionless upgrade only for this case, and otherwise maybe just makes an alert that a paid update is available if you want it.
I am planning to upgrade though as I’m a satisfied user of ST2 and ST3.
Overall, I'm not too upset about this -- a lot of the commenters in the linked thread seem to think that software shouldn't change major versions without (more) explicit consent, but ST4's backwards compatibility appears to be perfect so far (I have all kinds of weird personal plugins that use less-documented parts of the ST API, and they're all still working). They could have certainly made the update message clearer, but I don't think the developers deserve the kind of indignation they're receiving.
And the prior license had no expiration date, and the new one expires in 3 years.
I didn't leave it unregistered for long enough to confirm this, but: ST has historically been fully functional even when unregistered -- the only difference between a registered and unregistered copy is/was the nag dialogue they display every 10 saves. I don't think it's accurate to say that this update "leaves the user with nothing" -- the update was fully functional (and reversible!) right out of the box.
> Also, on Linux, there is no indication that the license would be invalid, or that the upgrade required further payment.
Same on macOS. I agree that this should have been made much more explicit.
Although I pay the fee happily, this does seem wrong. It seems to me that as a software provider you have two choices:
1. Make it a monthly (or whatever) subscription for the latest version (eg Photoshop)
2. Charge for a new version (eg apt install ST3 vs apt install ST4)