I second your opinions. I thought we were the only ones. In our case we
expend effort, time and money to create an application with the idea of
using it in intranet enviroment for video session recordings. The
profesional version was the choice because it would cover the needs, it
could be stacked and the total cost, although superior to MS alternative,
could be programmed around. It was approved and cataloged by the local
government as R&D project because of some specific aspects which mean public
economical support during the development.

All of the sudden no personal version, so a big cost increase. We are
dropping the project as we cannot justify that a small company would spend
several grand on only the FCS server. As you can imaginge, it make us very
"happy", but this is not new. Observing the fast and unpredicteable changes
in products lines, prices and strategies it makes nearly impossible or it is
not worthwhile for the smaller shops/clients to keep up. In the last 3 years
we have been expending less in MM products. Not because we wanted to, but
because common sense told us to wait and see first.

Our main tecnology is ColdFusion and things like this has make us to look
into the next technology which is probably going to be php or .net.

Anyway... we still have the fCS 1.5 personal licenses... which probably will
not work in flash 10.

Jorge



---------------------------------
Date: Fri, 18 Nov 2005 08:15:51 -0500
From: "Michael Murray" <webmaster-uJLKE0L6Kig@public.gmane.org>
Subject: Re: [FlashComm] FMS 2 Licensing Changes - Left in the dark
with no	options
To: "FlashComm Mailing List" <flashcomm-1Ss2GqJETD3yZ38Mhd3e/9ZfFG6BLHNm@pub
lic.gmane.org>
Message-ID: <00a101c5ec42$33a5d5b0$6401a8c0@Hewlett>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="iso-8859-1"

I'm very disturbed over this tactic, if absolutely true. I currently have
FCS 1.5 and have invested over 1 year developing an FCS application that I
have finally found a buyer for. This application will require an unlimited
license, which I can no longer buy for any price, anywhere?

I'm really fuming over the fact that I paid $4,500.00 for a product, labor
costs and 12 months worth of dedicated server hosting to develop an
application that, thanks to vendor policy, no longer has viability. If I
should upgrade to the latest and greatest, what guarantee would I have that
Macromedia/Adobe would not pull the same thing again with the next release?

Let me be blunt here in case the meaning can't be inferred by Macromedia.
What kind of idiot company makes their previous product immediately unusable
the moment they come out with a new release? If this is true, this has to
rank really high in the annals of corporate stupidity.

Basically, Macromedia has killed my business with no notice or warning. This
is not how you win friends and allegiance. The statement about smart vendors
never defecating on their developers is quite true.

Arrogance has killed more than one corporation. I remember being at an IBM
booth at a trade show and someone asked an IBM salesman why they should buy
an expensive IBM computer and not one of the ones being sold in nearby
booths. The salesman drew himself up to his full height, looked down at the
questioner and said "Because we own the market". Seen any IBM PC's in a
store lately?

How long will it take for the lesson to sink in that Macromedia will
periodically introduce some things that will have the potential to destroy
your business? How many developers will take the risk to develop ANY
Macromedia applications then? Once that becomes known, how long will
Macromedia remain in business?

I understand the desire for Macromedia to get everyone to upgrade, but this
is pure thug tactics. IBM never gave their customers 30 days or less to
upgrade to the latest operating system or be cut off. Microsoft supported
Windows 98 long after Windows XP had been released.

If Macromedia wants their developers to upgrade, they should try the carrot
instead of a battering ram. Show us a product that has something other than
a draconian licensing plan and features that make it worthwhile. Don't
simply cancel our ability to survive and operate unless we follow your
orders.

I have no idea how I'll survive this little nicety. One year of development
and marketing has finally landed a customer that will be starting up within
15 days and now I have no way to support his volume.

Has anyone any knowledge of any FCS 1.5 unlimited licenses that I can buy
somewhere?

Best regards,
Michael Murray




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