Re: WDSC changing to RDi

Kelly Cookson wrote:

Joe wrote:

Bait and switch means you are paying considerably more for something than promised...

If IBM had wanted to bait with the free WDSCi and later switch to the
licensed RDi, how would IBM have done things differently from what has
happened so far?

Kelly, I'm going to drop this conversation because we're just missing basic context. If there were no WDSC at all, and IBM did the repackaging which meant compilers and ADTS were unbundled, would you still be shouting "bait and switch"? I don't think so.

So, the only issue is that you now have to choose between either ADTS or RDi. They cost the same, you used to get both, now you have to choose. In IBM's mind, they want everyone to switch to RDi, so they don't have to maintain both, and between me and you (don't tell anyone) I'll bet that pretty soon they'll announce that ADTS is "stabilized" meaning no more enhancements.

Why doesn't IBM release WDSCi to an open source project, like they
released Toolbox for Java to the JTOpen community?

Because they have to have revenue for Rational to continue operating, and since RDi is based on WDSC, releasing WDSC to open source would release much of RDi to open source.

I'm still missing something. Why would you feel IBM should not charge
for switching from ADTS to RDi? If ADTS and RDi are going to cost the
same under the new plan, there is no charge for switching from one to
the other, right? There must be something I'm leaving out.

Yeah, there's still an issue with RDi. Right now, you only get entitlements to ADTS. The original word was that you have to pay for RDi, even if you have entitled 5722WDS seats, and the latest is that there will be an upgrade fee, something less than the full price of the product. Personally, I'd complain a lot about that.

We have 28 developers, and I'd say about half use ADTS and half use
WDSCi (each developer gets to choose which set of tools they use). I
suspect our managers will not pay for both ADTS and RDi. So about 14
developers are going to move from ADTS to RDi, or about 14 developers
are going to move from WDSCi to ADTS.

What size machine are you running? IBM considers 28 developers to be a P40. At that point, you're paying $84K for 5722WDS. 28 ILE developers, half on ADTS and half on RDi, is less than $73K. Even if you're cramming all those developers onto a P30, that's still $56K for 5722WDS, and your bump is $17K, or $3500 a year in SWMA. That's a rise of about $150 a seat, or about 30%.

Now, if you have all those developers on a P10 or even a P20, that's when you get hit, and if you read my article, that's exactly what I'm saying. IBM's mew pricing structure specifically targets people with large development staffs on small machines.

Joe