Re: WDSC V7 Turbo Boost

[Aaron Bartell <aaronbartell@xxxxxxxxx>]

>Either there will be some sort of open source solution that will take 
a large amount of these sales away or people will migrate away form the 
platform.

There is already an open source one that I have started recommending to 
those that can't go the RDi route as of yet.  www.RPGNextGen.com is a 
free, open source, RPG editor based on eclipse.  I use it quite a lot 
and think it holds great promise to be "good enough" and keep people 
from seeing what RDi could do to take them even further.

IBM probably doesn't see things as well as they should because they 
still have a lot of really big customers that don't think too much about 
paying $800/developer for development software.  But like you said, 
there is an entirely new generation of students coming out of school 
these days, and to them the internet is "free" (whether it is legal or 
not what they are doing).  I am not saying IBM should make it free, but 
make the cost of entry zero so adoption can happen more rapidly.

Aaron Bartell
http://mowyourlawn.com


Bryce Martin wrote:
> Well said Aaron.  I'm coming up on the anniversary of my second year of 
> programming on the i.  All the programming I had done in college was in 
> other languages using free compilers and editors.  When I got into this 
> part of the programming field it felt so foreign and when I saw the 
> pricing structure that IBM and so many of its 3rd party software vendors 
> use for software licences something really felt weird.  Why would you want 
> to alienate your product offerings because of priceing issues doesn't seem 
> to make sense.  They are fracturing their own user base over dollars and 
> cents.  And its not like the programming community is quiet about how it 
> feels.  Its not like the IBMers that watch these mailing lists aren't 
> aware of the customers' concerns.  It starts to feel like bullying.  They 
> have the customers so deeply invested with hardware and the ERP and other 
> systems that run on that hardware that when it comes down to the little 
> things (montetarily speaking) they just ignore what the customers are 
> saying.  IBM isn't run by dummies.  They know what they are doing.  They 
> obviously don't feel its hurting them financially to be doing things the 
> way they are, and until it does hurt them financially they won't change. 
> One of two things can happen.  Either there will be some sort of open 
> source solution that will take a large amount of these sales away or 
> people will migrate away form the platform.  The first is more likely 
> since the second has very large costs associated with it and would really 
> need to have some seriously angry customers to do it.  So as long as 
> customers are only grumbling and not actually pissed off then they are ok 
> on the migration front.
>
> /end-rant
>
> In closing.  I love this platform.  I think its the most stable and robust 
> system I've seen, but doing the little things right would sell more 
> systems.  Its hard enough to convice people to make the investment and 
> realize the ROI before hand so why make it harder on yourself over a 
> couple of thousand dollars when your company does billions in business?
>
>
> Thanks
> Bryce Martin
> Programmer/Analyst I
> Ext. 4777
>
>
>
> Aaron Bartell <aaronbartell@xxxxxxxxx> 
> Sent by: wdsci-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> 01/09/2009 09:34 AM
> Please respond to
> Websphere Development Studio Client for iSeries <wdsci-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
>
> To
> Websphere Development Studio Client for iSeries <wdsci-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> cc
>
> Subject
> Re: [WDSCI-L] WDSC V7 Turbo Boost
>
>
>
>
>
>
> I think adoption will slow considerably given the fact that there is no 
> low cost entry into the "new WDSC" (i.e. RDi).  I still firmly believe 
> IBM is shooting themselves in the foot by approaching it the way they 
> did without even giving a single-seat-no-charge copy of RDi with every 
> compiler purchase.  Get it into every shop so it becomes the house-hold 
> name for doing RPG development, and then when the shop needs more than 
> one license they get to get out their checkbook (but at this point they 
> full recognize the ROI).
>
> A 90-day trial will work well enough for existing WDSC users to 
> determine if they want to pay for RDi, but I hardly believe it is enough 
> time for an average SEU RPG programmer to make the switch from scratch.
>
> It becomes an up-hill battle to educate people on such an excellent tool 
> (which I believe it to be the best out there) when the only real way 
> they can experience it is to get out their empty checkbook.  In the past 
> I have done quite a few articles, sessions, newsletters, etc, promoting 
> WDSC because it was simply a matter of getting through the politics and 
> installing it on machines.  How do authors/writers promote it now that 
> it costs so much?  I really wish IBM would have taken the MyEclipseIDE 
> approach of charging maybe $50/year/user and then have all support done 
> through an online forum and let the community resolve most of the issues 
> instead of having to open up a PMR.  Heck, the IBM'ers on this list are 
> already doing that to some extent (which I think is absolutely wonderful 
> btw).
>
> Those are my thoughts for a Friday :-)
>
> Aaron Bartell
> http://mowyourlawn.com
>
> Trevor Perry wrote:
>   
> > David,
> >
> > Sorry - I finally realized you said 95% of THE shop.
> >
> > I am finding more and more shops are getting over their problems with 
> >     
> the
>   
> > older versions of WDSC, and are adopting it fresh. If you treat it like 
> >     
> it
>   
> > IS new, you may be able to convert everyone over!
> >
> > Good luck,
> > Trevor
> >
> >
> > On 1/9/09 8:57 AM, "Trevor Perry" <trevor@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> >
> >     
>
>