Re: Software Vendors (And US too) - A small rant

I recall data showed that when it was free, everyone tried it but since there was no cost, and therefore no perceived 'loss' for not using it, it got pushed to the back burner. Since training was really required but again product was free so why pay to train on a free product. Then some didn't have enough screen real-estate or big enough PC to be productive and again "why spend money to run a free product."

So IBM begins to charge. Now the questions are asked: "Are our PCs big enough, if not fix that. Do we have training available? If not get that. Did we pay money for product, PC, and Training? Then Use it!!"

I certainly know from my customer base that I helped many people get WDSC installed and did initial training on basic use. Then I would come back later to see SEU on their screens. I suggested training by real experts like Jon and Susan and they all said they were good with SEU.

I personally know of only two exceptions where WDSC actually replaced SEU for production coding and both cases are guys who really understand tools and their value.

- Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis

On 12/17/2012 2:29 AM, John Yeung wrote:

Interesting. Well, I certainly can't argue with that. I wonder if adoption went up because the pricing made people aware of it at all, or if the pricing invoked the "you get what you pay for" sense of value to it. It also reinforces the idea that IBM midrange culture is, on the whole, very different from the prevailing open-source culture. I think by now, most folks developing on anything else have the expectation that decent (and sometimes outstanding) developer tools are simply going to be available for free. Thanks for the history lesson. John