Upgrade version and pricing

[Kevin Miller]

Hi,

A few comments on this thread:

It is difficult, and more often than not, impractical, to separate out bug
fixes from feature enhancements.  For example, if there are bugs in a
certain area and requests for enhancements, it might be quicker to implement
the enhancements and fix the bug together.  Or it may simply be that a
feature as designed really needs to be redesigned somewhat in order to
improve it.  Some people have their own definitions of a bug fix and a
feature.  Often a new feature is just as important to a customer in getting
a job done as a bug fix.  The new Distribution Builder is an example of this
- its a major feature upgrade with a redesigned interface and additional
functionality.  Yet it fixes many bugs too.  It simply wouldn't be possible
to separate out the "bug fixes" in this upgrade and offer them as 2.x.x
release upgrade, because the code was rewritten.  We could do one or the
other, not both.

You may suggest that this is the exception rather than the rule, but in our
experience it is the rule, and a straight "bug fix" which is not best solved
by at least slightly enhancing a feature is the exception.  So, you may
suggest, fix the bugs that are separate and then move on to new features.
But that's not really what most most people want - the areas we have been
working on are being done in a strict priority order, and a new Distribution
Builder for example, ranks higher than most other items and thus is in the
next release.  We could of course double all our prices across the board to
pay for doing both things, but I suspect that this wouldn't be appreciated
either.

Obviously, we see a potential difficulty with people expecting free bug
fixes which are mixed in with major new features.  Both 2.2 and 2.3 have
major new features and many enhancements.  As such, we recently took the
decision to end the confusion created by charging for individual releases,
and move all our upgrade pricing over to one year upgrade packs.  That way
you'll get new features, bug fixes, enhancements and anything else we
produce for a year for one low fee.  Pricing will be set when we ship 2.2.
As ever, if you think you need special treatment for some good reason, you
can contact us directly and negotiate.

Someone complained that we didn't release notes about 2.2.  We haven't
officially announced that release yet, so obviously we haven't published the
release notes.

Its worth noting that the vast majority of our customers work with
Revolution just fine on a day to day basis and do not find the product
overly buggy.  Unlike many other companies, we currently make our bug
database public.  And of course, as with any tool of this complexity, there
are real issues that do affect a number of customers and we're working on
those in line with the schedule I have previously stated on this list.

With regard to company communication and the suggestion that we implement
additional levels to make it easier to communicate: the company already has
a multi-user multi-level support tracking system which allows the right
person to get and deal with your enquiry.  When I referred to the length of
time it takes to reply to emails, I was referring to email that bypassed the
system we have in place, by being sent directly to me.  It gets read and
replied too, but it can take time.

Finally, someone suggested that there is wording in our license that allows
you to skip the next upgrade and pick any upgrade you choose as a free
upgrade.  That wasn't our intention when writing that license.  However, as
ever we will probably be willing to work something out with an individual
customer if the contact us off list with specific circumstances that justify
doing so.

Kind regards,

Kevin

Kevin Miller ~ kevin at runrev.com ~ http://www.runrev.com/
Runtime Revolution - User-Centric Development Tools