1) Companies who sell physical goods generally offer a limited-time warranty, not forever. Software can do likewise. They can also specify what they don't cover - ie "if you install this on an OS other than what we listed, or use peripherals that come out in the future which we couldn't have anticipated, and something doesn't work, you'll have to pay for support or updates to get our help." 2) I wouldn't expect a company to spend more supporting their software than they make by selling it. But a company SHOULD help their customers get their software working because it's good customer support, and because "fixing my problems" may well mean improving their software. If they're unwilling to put forth reasonable effort, I'm happy to use their competitor's product.