From Hero to Three Point Zero

Good news: Movable Type 3.0 is out. Bad news: if you run more than three blogs with one account, or have more than one author per blog, you have to pay for the upgrade to continue what you’re doing. View the new price list.
As others have already noted, upgrading to MT3.0 could ironically limit your options.
Nothing good is free – for long, I suppose. To their credit, the folks at SixApart have put in a lot of time, expertise and effort by creating this wonderful tool in the first place. But perhaps the revenue from Typepad isn’t enough for them anymore.
They should remember that Movable Type’s success, however, was based on the fact that it was free, customisable, and one of the most powerful blogging tools in its time. And in this day and age, price is a major factor – especially if there isn’t much to distinguish one product from other free ones in the market.
I suppose most people running a personal website would probably be fine with the MT3.0 free licence which limits use of MT3.0 to one author and three blogs. One thing I don’t understand though is the big jump from zero to US$69.95 (normal price US$99.95) for the next tier of personal use.
I’m wondering what community weblogs are going to do about it, too. I doubt most are going to upgrade – especially the nonprofit organisations.
I myself may tarry a little before I make the leap to MT3.0. If time permits I might set up a (free) test blog – for myself of course, seeing how only one author is allowed now, y’know 😛
With the recent re-launch of a new standards-compliant Blogger, and the growing popularity of other weblog software like Textpattern and WordPress, I think the folks at SixApart have given themselves a run for their money.
[Clarification: Having donated previously to Movable Type, I don’t mind paying for software that does everything I want. However, if I have to pay for a tweaked-up version of what I’m getting now, then it isn’t worth the upgrade.]