HOBOJOE  Man, people really need to stop overreacting. One of the commenters below is basically comparing the Linotype people to drug dealers!

"They give ya the first taste for free, but once yer hooked, it's gonna cost ya!"

It's obvious Linotype's business model didn't work. FontExplorer was supposed to be like iTunes, where you use its organizational and browsing features, but also its "Font Store" feature as well. Well, we all know that fonts are probably just as pirated as music tracks are, so the income Linotype was hoping for didn't happen.

So should they throw away this perfectly good app and stop developing it? Or should they try to leverage it into a new business model?

You can buy FontExplorer Pro for $39 now until the end of February. That's a very reasonable price, much cheaper than the other options out there.

I am in no way affiliated with Linotype. In fact, I'll even say that Fontcase looks really good too, and holds lots of promise for a 1.0 app. And it's only $45.

But let's take the drama down a notch, okay? Save your indignation for something that really deserves it.  
(Version 2.0)

BAD_DAD  Download the Pro demo, Control Click and show contents, navigate to 'Resources' and find the plugins. Now unzip the CS4 versions pop them into your Indesign Plug-ins Folder etc

Hey Presto! Auto-activation for CS4 apps and FontExplorer 1.2.3!

Cool huh..  
(Version 2.0)

SPECTRAL7  Overall 2-3 years of free software for essentially a great product is good going. I still have old version installed on at least 50 machines and works fine IMHO in QXP7/CS2/CS3 environments.

Pro software & support costs money.....you only need FEXPro if you have spent loads of money on Quark 8 or CS4 so a small extra cost for proper font management on top is not a big deal.

It also opens up the possibility for centralised font management at a large cost but that is the way it is !

Please stop moaning about it, at least their is some competition in the market which should lead to proper development.  
(Version 2.0.1)

REVCO  No longer free. 39 euro ($75 AUD) until end of Feb and then back up to 79 euro ($150 AUD). Didn't see that coming. It is a nice piece of software but not 39 or even 79 euro nice.  
(Version 2.0)

SGMOYE  This is basically a good piece of software, but Linotype's support is very much less than good, indeed it is not anywhere near acceptable. Having paid for version 2.x I expected decent, timely support. Snow Leopard has now been out for several weeks, and Linotype has not fixed FEXPro incompatibilities with SL. The worst problem is that fonts activated by FEXPro do not show up in application font menus **until** you go to FEXPRO, deactivate the font and then reactivate the font. As soon as you shut down your computer, that 'fix' goes away.

The FEXPro web site makes absolutely no mention of the incompatibilities, much less suggestions for workarounds (I don't think there are any). There was some suggestion that a fix would be available during the week of September 14 -- that has come and gone with no word from Linotype.

I have received email from Linotype technical support acknowledging the problems, but nothing else.  
(Version 2.0.2)

WHAT THE?  I am too a Linotype FontExplorer lover. I have owned, used and tried Suitcase 8 to X, Adobe ATM Deluxe, Font Agent Pro, FontExplorer, Master Juggler.

For me FEX is the simplest and easiest to use without locking up the Mac or applications, or crashing. It can be a bit slow on viewing typefaces... I can live with that rather than the crashes I had with Suitcase or the others. I have not tried/demo'd/installed Fusion as once bitten a little shy.

I purchased a few licences today for FEX, jumped in, and enjoying it.  
(Version 2.0)

KINGADROCK  Nobody likes to pay for software, especially software that was once free. Put this in perspective though, FontExplorer X is the best overall font management software on the market, do you really blame them for charging? I don't; I just bought my license today.  
(Version 2.0.1)

XPLICIT  This app look really made-by-pros to me. A good app I can preview all my fonts with and more. Great.  
(Version 2.0)

HMURCHISON  Actually this is a pretty solid update. The UI is now up-to-date and while it looks a lot like the free version at first glance once you dig a little deeper you see that it offers much more functionality than the free version with plugins for most of the Pro level graphics application and a whole slew of customizability. The sever version also signifies that this is a serious application (if the "Pro" hadn't already tipped someone off)

If your needs are very basic then of course you can stick with the free version or Font.app that comes with OS X. If your needs go beyond the typical user this app looks like it will be competitive with Suitcase and Font Agent Pro. I'd love to see a battle royal with the the aforementioned apps and the new Fontcase app coming to see which app remains standing.

It's good to see OS X with so many solid font management apps.   
(Version 2.0)

KOBALT  Okay, I installed it, tried it out and I find it much the same as the free version (in my workflow). Not sure what I'd be paying for in this new version. Can't be the updated Adobe plugins - they have always come for free with the app. Customisable list view? Kerning pairs in info window? Configurable toolbar? Connects to the all new FontExplorer X Server? Font store can be hidden by user or server admin? Backup functionality? Integrated PDF manual? Quick Install functionality? Is that really worth Euro40 (US$54)?

Just contemplating forking over my cash - it's been a good app for me since it arrived and still the least expensive of the three big ones. And it *does* help me earn money. Oh, what the hell ... I'll leave it for a bit longer and use v1.2.3 which still works just fine.  
(Version 2.0)