Re: George Farr declaresfeaturespecificpricingonhorizonfor WDSC

I can see I have hit a sensitive spot with you John, but in my defense I
have only been a contractor for a couple years now.  I have lived where you
are living.  You must also understand that every shop that I go into may not
have the money for the things that I am in support of, which will inevitably
mean I will not be able to use the WDSC tooling when working for them.

Am I drinking WDSC Kool-Aid?  Maybe.  I have drank Java Kool-Aid before and
thrown it up years later.  I think the reality of the situation is this: No
money to pay developers, no second-to-none tooling.  Am I fine with most of
what I have today in WDSC, yes.  But they (WDSC dev team) might be able to
raise their development to the next level (concerning feature sets) and if
that costs me more $$ to get it in 1yr vs. 5yrs then many would say it is
worth it.

My previous employer is making a grand switch to .NET.  Wanna know why?
Tooling/Software.  Plain and simple.  Microsoft has some pretty nice
integration amongst all of their products and I can see why the decision was
made.  What if IBM would have had the tooling available to them two years
ago?  They wouldn't have had to introduce an entirely new development
environment into the scenario which costs a lot of $$$.

I guess in the end we both are on the same page, just getting there through
different means.  We both agree that somehow those tools need to be paid for
whether it be through an annual purchase of SW Maint, compiler purchase, or
off the shelf feature pricing.  Note that I am not saying that you agree
with me on the pay-by-feature deal:-) It will be interesting to see where it
goes.

Aaron Bartell

 

-----Original Message-----
From: wdsci-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:wdsci-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of John Taylor
Sent: Monday, March 26, 2007 10:41 AM
To: 'Websphere Development Studio Client for iSeries'
Subject: Re: [WDSCI-L] George Farr
declaresfeaturespecificpricingonhorizonfor WDSC

-----Original Message-----
From: wdsci-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:wdsci-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of albartell
Sent: Monday, March 26, 2007 8:52 AM
To: 'Websphere Development Studio Client for iSeries'
Subject: Re: [WDSCI-L] George Farr declares 
featurespecificpricingonhorizonfor WDSC

I am sure it has clouded, but the bigger picture still 
remains.  If IBM can produce something that is good enough, 
there will be many that will pay for it.  Why?

I'm just not getting through here. 

_YOU_ may NOT be paying for it - but _I_ and the majority of other iSeries
owners already _ARE_. We've been paying for the development of PDM,
Code/400, WDSC (including the screen designer), Websphere, Java etc. to get
to where it is today. Our company alone, has spent close to 6 figures over
the years to fund the development of these tools. Now you come along and
suggest that IBM should be charging extra because the tools that we've been
funding for all these years are now so good that they shouldn't be "free".

I tell you what... why don't you focus your efforts on lobbying IBM to start
charging you and other ISV's full price for the toolset? IBM get's more
money, you get the satisfaction of knowing the software is no longer "free",
and the rest of us don't have to shoulder the financial burden on our own.
Sounds like a win-win situation to me!

For the same 
reasons people pay for every other tool in their toolbox.  
Why do people use VS.NET instead of SharpDevelop?  Why do 
people run Windows vs. Linux?  Why do people pay for CMS 
packages like MKS, Softlanding and Aldon when they could roll 
their own home grown - because in the end it is like 
purchasing manpower at a very cheap rate.

I license Visual Studio (the full version) as well. I completely understand
how the system works. I would happily purchase WDSC if the price was
reasonable, AND IF I WASN'T ALREADY PAYING FOR IT.

 
Regards,

John Taylor