Re: Cost of RDP

On 7/5/2011 9:14 AM, Kurt Anderson wrote:

I agree. I mean, as a start-up, IBM is up against some behemoth corporations. Oh wait - what are you talking about? It's like you're saying MS development tools lead people to Windows (the comment about Windows licenses), unless I'm misunderstanding it. Why can't IBM use the same business model? Even before when it was "free" we were really paying for it bundled up.

This particular argument has been hashed and re-hashed. I have no control over IBM's marketing and pricing policies. It is what it is, and fighting that particular battle is tilting at some pretty big windmills. If you are serious about it, I suggest writing to various folks at IBM. I have a hard time identifying who is in charge of what these days even with a scorecard, but maybe someone on the list can supply some names and email addresses.

Joe, can you elaborate on, "still almost zero support from the midrange community." There seems to be this belief that IBM users, not IBM, should be marketing IBM's product. Sorry, this isn't a local bakery that I'm supporting. This is a multi-national corporation.

IBM has a ton of products that it supports and the RPG programming community is a relatively small portion of that base. And even when WDSC was bundled, almost nobody used it. They complained (rightly or wrongly) about the speed and the size and the fact that it was easier to do things in SEU. And even as each of those issues was addressed, by far the most vocal contingent in the community were the naysayers. In fact, some of those people are STILL some of the loudest people on these lists.

Since WDSC was introduced, how many people encouraged IBM to continue developing the product, or fought for acceptance within their organizations? And when IBM tried to move to a pay scheme to justify continued costs, the backlash was loud and long. In the end, IBM did what it had to do to pay for the development. In my opinion, we're lucky it's there at all given the recalcitrance of the community. You say IBM should market the product. Well, think of this - where do you think the ROI of RDP ranks among other IBM products? Near the top or near the bottom? Then ask yourself again what IBM should do to market the product. Because if it's not a productive investment, the answer might not be what you want to hear.

Joe