What you say is true for software that needs to be improved. But I use and love some semi-abandonware and couldn't care less about improvements: TextMate 1, NewsFire, Lineform, AAA game ports to OS X, lots of iOS software that is ever being updated once.
iOS currently makes for a good example, because all it takes for some old apps to use the Retina display is to recompile the very same source with newer dev tools. Sometimes it just takes that, or a small fixes to make software run on a new OS.
I'd pay more for software if the authors promised to open-source it the moment they drop support.
( Of course, the App Store has a problem similar to Ruby Gems - it is hard to transfer control of the main repository.)
iOS currently makes for a good example, because all it takes for some old apps to use the Retina display is to recompile the very same source with newer dev tools. Sometimes it just takes that, or a small fixes to make software run on a new OS.
I'd pay more for software if the authors promised to open-source it the moment they drop support.
( Of course, the App Store has a problem similar to Ruby Gems - it is hard to transfer control of the main repository.)