From Newsgroup: comp.sys.cbm

This is more as a secondary response to Sam's post about Punter and the
PC.... but none the less relevant.

Am I the only one who gets P-O'd when a company stops supporting
thier product ???

In particular , the one whose " original" product put them "on the map"
so to speak ???

I understand the company closing it doors and either counting it's money
, or wondering why they don't HAVE any money.... and abandoning thier product........ it's way too common in this day and age.

The ones I'm talking about is company's like Mustang Software ( Wildcat
BB's - Qmodem and Qmodem Pro terminal programs ) ....... and people
like Borderbud.

OK..... Mustang has changed hands.... SO WHAT .... the reason it sold
for the big bucks
was the original product !............... but the fact is the company is
still in business

OK .... Borderbud changed hands ( THE PRINT SHOP !! ) ...... but SO
WHAT !!!!! .... why abandon the support for the product that gave you
"your claim to fame" ( not to mention rich )

( and lets not forget Berkley Software... aka GEOS )

And how about Electronic Arts ??? .... there's another "biggie"

No doubt if you don't "keep up" with the time , you will be
overlooked..... but what about the millions of users that put your name
"in lights" to start with ???

Can you imagine what a "modern day" programmer could do with the Print
Shop's original code ???? for our lil 'ol 8 bit machine's ??? It might
seem like a 1st grader's science fair project to them , considering what
they program now , but in my opinion , if your not going to support the product any more ( or even try to sell it to some sucker that can't get support)..... THEN AT LEAST RELEASE THE CODE SO "WE' CAN CARRY ON ! "

I don't know...... it just pisses me off that company's who got rich
with my dollars , and ARE STILL in business , won't support the product
any longer , or at the very least "pass it on" to the next guy.

C=ommodore went out of business.... ( sniff-sniff ).... so that doesn't
count ..... I'm talking about companys that "WE" made into giants that
have abandon us and are STILL in business.

Off the soapbox

Rick



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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.cbm

Rick Youngman wrote:

Am I the only one who gets P-O'd when a company stops supporting
thier product ???

That depends -- a few months after I bought it, yes, but after more than
15 years? Certainly not. I don't even blame Microsoft for not supporting Windows 95 anymore -- and I *do* blame them for a lot of things.

In particular , the one whose " original" product put them "on the map"
so to speak ???

What has that to do with supporting it?

Supporting a product is a business decision. Supporting a product costs
money. It is done because your customers expect you to do it, and are
less likely to buy from you again if you don't. OTOH, a reputation for
good support will help increase your sales.

Now, there comes a time in the lifecycle of every product where the
number of remaing users is so small that keeping on to support them will
never generate enough sales to recoup the costs. At that time, dropping support (or charging for support) is the right thing to do, and I can't
blame anyone for doing it.

The ones I'm talking about is company's like Mustang Software ( Wildcat
BB's - Qmodem and Qmodem Pro terminal programs ) ....... and people
like Borderbud.

OK..... Mustang has changed hands.... SO WHAT .... the reason it sold
for the big bucks
was the original product !............... but the fact is the company is still in business

No. The reason it sold "for the big bucks" was that the buyer thought
the company, or whatever piece of it they were interested in, was worth
the money, i.e., that they would end up making a profit.

Have a look at the prices people bought tech stocks for during the last
five years to see what I mean.

Can you imagine what a "modern day" programmer could do with the Print
Shop's original code ???? for our lil 'ol 8 bit machine's ???

Nothing, probably. I don't think many of them will know 6502 assembler.

It might
seem like a 1st grader's science fair project to them , considering what
they program now , but in my opinion , if your not going to support the product any more ( or even try to sell it to some sucker that can't get support)..... THEN AT LEAST RELEASE THE CODE SO "WE' CAN CARRY ON ! "

I agree with that; but even if there ever was documented source code for
the entire program, I'd be surprised if the company still has it.

Regards,
Michael
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.cbm

Rick Youngman wrote:

In particular , the one whose " original" product put them "on the
map" so to speak ???

Yep. Some guys are pissed off at companies who don't support their products
as they are supposed to. Just give a look at the Amiga or OS/2 advocacy newsgroups, it seems to be at a permanent bitching fest.

Can you imagine what a "modern day" programmer could do with the Print
Shop's original code ???? for our lil 'ol 8 bit machine's ??? It
might seem like a 1st grader's science fair project to them ,
considering what they program now , but in my opinion , if your not
going to support the product any more ( or even try to sell it to
some sucker that can't get support)..... THEN AT LEAST RELEASE THE
CODE SO "WE' CAN CARRY ON ! "

Have you ever heard about reverse engineering ? 8-)

I don't know...... it just pisses me off that company's who got rich
with my dollars , and ARE STILL in business , won't support the
product any longer , or at the very least "pass it on" to the next
guy.

If you're talking about products you bought ten or twenty years ago, these companies are still in business today probably because they dropped support
for unlucrative defunct products, such as those for Commodore computers. Supporting a product brings fees and a wise company does not invest money
where there is clearly no payback.

IBM is still carrying on with OS/2 support nowadays, although they had to require a fee based subscription in order to be able to deliver updates and support to their customers. Me and many others are, of course, happy with
IBM's decision, in spite of just seeing OS/2 retired, with no updates and no further development.

I am sure that if, say, Berkeley Softworks, or any other company, was aware about a considerable amount of Commodore users interested in their old
catalog, and willing to pay a subscription fee for a renewed support,
something may actually happen.

The problem is that Commodore users today are not a considerable amount for
a company who is not familiy based. CMD has never been a huge company,
although it was forced recently to drop its Commodore catalog because of
lack of revenues from that kind of market. Ain't needed no Einstein to
figure out how much would a big company like EA care about us...

Riccardo








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