Boy, there are a lot of comments about how incredible dolphin software is ... the time it takes to code everything ... the quality of good software ... etc. etc. etc.
Now, far be it from me to claim that boonex doesn't provide a good or even excellent product, but some of those comments about the involved labor time etc. for software are clearly made by people who are still stuck in the 80s and 90s as opposed to the year 2009.
My wife got laid off after 24 years of gold support service, first see more for DEC which was then purchased by Compaq which was in turn purchased by HP. Few people know better than her how automated and responsive (logical) software coding has become. Today, code can be generated for files, software packages, etc. about 100 times faster than 10 years ago ... and that's precisely why such a *MASSIVE* price hike is completely unwarranted.
Have you people never heard of sourceforge.org ???
Give me a break here, I've been online since 1991 or 1992 and at this point in time (today) there is a shit load of top quality software available that costs next to nothing - or nothing - or you just have to pay for branding i.e. ad removal.
Matter of fact, just a few weeks ago I had to make an adjustment on more thna 19.000 files that are visible to the public ... and was able to do this with very affordable software that I had purchased in a matter of about 6 hours. Only 3 or 4 years ago it would have taken me several weeks to do what I was able to do in just 6 hours with about 30.00 bucks worth of software.
Talk about software development ...
Have you ever heard about openoffice.org or used the product openoffice ??? I used (and paid for) Microsoft Office all the way up to version Office 2000. And you know why I stopped using MS office entirely? Because the day eventually came that, in my opinion, OpenOffice got to be just as good if not better ... with free support up the whaazoo and free upgrades for life and *ZERO* cost. How could they do this? Because they had a boat load of developers, just like boonex has outside developers, dedicating their time to create a better product. And OpenOffice didn't come along either, one bright sunny day, going from *FREE* to only 100.00 bucks since that was still way cheaper than MS office. It would have been completely inappropriate to do so, just as I feel that some of these boonex price changes are totally inappropriate.
for those prices, twice the cost of VistaUltimate, MS Office, etc. there *MUST* be 100% support, documentation, etc. If that's not avaialble, then the product is still mediocre, i.e. not FINISHED developed and doesn't warant such prices.
I think that that's why there's so much negativity about the pricing ... the fact that there wasn't ample warning given, the fact that the little guys were completely ignored, and the fact the new pricing structure does indeed smell an awful lot like boonex was just sucking people in for a few years, perhaps using a lot of free help, while waiting for the right moment to go "kablooey" with the prices.
That was very insightful Meine - i.e. that this doesn't really follow the spirit of the "open software movement" and "the fact that there wasn't ample warning given, the fact that the little guys were completely ignored, and the fact the new pricing structure does indeed smell an awful lot like boonex was just sucking people in for a few years, perhaps using a lot of free help... ". I don't think there were any bad intentions, and my guess is that they will make some kind of see more arrangement to sell at the old prices for a period (why wouldn't they? As long as they gave sufficient time period it would be an obvious win-win deal). On another point though, I think this was a mistake because they gave up a position in the market - as the low/cost and free, but feature packed social network destined to be HUGE (think Craigslist, etc). Now they are in danger of becoming "just another software company" (in fact, one of the pricier ones). It may be that now they won't be "the next big thing" or reach their "connecting the world" goals.
Now, far be it from me to claim that boonex doesn't provide a good or even excellent product, but some of those comments about the involved labor time etc. for software are clearly made by people who are still stuck in the 80s and 90s as opposed to the year 2009.
My wife got laid off after 24 years of gold support service, first see more