Re: RDp SWMA

On 2/17/2012 1:19 PM, Jack Callahan wrote:

FYI
WDSc users were entitled to RDi up until 2010
RDi users are still entitled to RDp

WDSc AE users might have been entitled IF they were covered under Passport
Advantage. AFAIK, WDSc Standard Edition users were never entitled to RDi.
Having never seen the need to purchase the upgraded functionality of WDSc
AE, my firm now needs to pay IBM in order for me to use RDi/RDp- even
though it expected to be entitled to use IBM's current source development
tools when it purchased 5722-WDS and kept current on SWMA.

IBM unilaterally changed the rules to suit its organizational concerns, and
choose to put Rational's revenue concerns before the interests of existing
IBM i customers. Certainly not the first time Rational has left at least
some IBM i customers with the short end of the stick.

You had a window where you could upgrade for a reduced cost. That window is gone. Now you will have to pay the full $795 for a seat one time then you're back to your normal SWMA.

Perhaps IBM should have charged first like they did with OAR? The problem with charging for WDSC is that even with it free, not a lot of people used it. And if you remember the early years of WDSC, nobody would have paid for it anyway. Certainly not green screen shops. So that wouldn't have worked. Maybe they could have done the WebSphere thing: give it away free, then charge for it, then give away the Express version. No, people would still be screaming bloody murder. Or they could continue to give it away for free, I guess. But that's not a very workable revenue model.

I don't know what they could have done.

Joe