Recuva is a very useful tool; also, as far as I know, it's the only free recovery tool for windows: all competitors offer only crippled trialwares, and it is a nightmere when you have a not working system, and need to download quickly a recovery tool.
My suggestion is: since Recuva is already free, why not releasing source code, too? It will have many advantages, IMHO:
- some users feel that a freeware is less powerful than a commercial software: instead, an open source tool is perceived as a tool for nerds, really powerful.
- an open source Recuva would allow third-party developers to write plugins and extensions: i.e. a plugin to identify and reconstruct a specific file format, or a plugin to work on special devices (like magneto-optical drives)
- an open source program would be easily ported on other platforms (Mac, Linux)
- with a GPL license, all improvements added by third-party developers have to be GPL, too, so Piriform would be able to integrate the best new features in the official version
- An open source Recuva would be listed on all sites promotin free software (and it would be easier to find, since it would be the only easy-to-use recovery tool in its category): that would bring more users to Piriform.
- The availability of source code would help many programmers to understand better how file systems and drives work, and that would help all software development
In that way, I think that Recuva could become THE recovery tool, and overcome all competitors.