Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!ames!oliveb!sun!plaid!chuq
From: chuq@plaid.Sun.COM (Chuq Von Rospach)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: LightspeedC 3.0 Upgrade Policy
Message-ID: <42643@sun.uucp>
Date: 21 Feb 88 02:05:17 GMT
References: <76000133@uiucdcsp>
Sender: news@sun.uucp
Reply-To: chuq@sun.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach)
Organization: Fictional Reality, uLtd
Lines: 45

>s8Boy am I disappointed.  I purchased Lightspeed C on January 10th,
>anticipating that they would release a new version, under their former
>"free upgrade" policy.  I was impressed by the way THINK does business
>and was confident that they would try to keep their customers satisfied.

I'm going to disagree with you on this one. I expect that the upgrade price
will be reasonable, but 'free' is certainly not something you should expect
(or even WANT! Yes, I'll explain that).

The original free upgrade made sense. A lot of people bought the original
LSC, and that support made it a viable product. The free upgrade was partly
saying thanks, and partly giving those folks the bug fixes and missing parts
that the original release didn't have.

LSC 3.0 is different. It isn't a bug-fix release like 2.11 or 2.15, it's a
siginificantly rewritten and enhanced product. At the minimum, you'll now
have a full symbolic debugger. That's a lot of work, and you can't expect
the LightSpeed folks to just give it away. 

Look at what the other publishers are doing. The upgrade price from Ready,
Set, Go! 3.0 to 4.0 was $75. Significantly less than the cost of the new
package, in fact less than the difference between the old list price and the
new list price. There was significant new functionality, performance
improvements and other things. Lots of programmer hours, testing hours,
documentation hours. Giving that away is insane -- all you'll do is put your
company into Chapter 11. And, frankly, I'd rather have a happy, rich company
than a bankrupt one. 

I think LSC 3.0 qualifies for the same respect. Pay them for what you're
getting. Lots of neat new toys, new power. If you don't need them, or you
think their price is out of line, then use the old version -- it won't break
when the new one releases.

Companies have a responsibility to fix bugs for the customers. These bug
fixes need to be made available at a reasonable price (overhead and
duplication). Few bother to go this far, so bitching at LightSpeed, one of
the few companies that not only makes this stuff available CHEAP, but gives
it away on the networks, is insane. Be fair -- they have to make a living,
if you ever want to see LSC 4.0, the program that writes itself. 


Chuq Von Rospach			chuq@sun.COM		Delphi: CHUQ

                       What do you mean 'You don't really want to hurt her?'
                                    I'm a Super-Villain! That's my Schtick!