Re: VB -> ORACLE on UNIX

Hi All-

>work well. Have also had good experience with Q&E stuff but they have a per
>seat runtime since changing ownership.

I almost passed this posting by because I was absolutely sure that the ad we bought our copies of Q+E from said that it was Royalty Free.

However, being suspicious, I just called the Q+E people and they indeed confirmed that they are going to start selling Q+E MultiLink/VB with a per seat distribution royalty starting at $50 per seat. In my conversation with their sales rep, I made it clear that we had no intention of paying any royalties on the version that we bought & licensed as "Royalty Free" and she said she thought that would be the case. Unfortunately, it seems that if we want to buy any new releases, get bug fixes, or anything other than what we have now, they'll be wanting royalties from us.

FLAME ON ... (and those who are familiar with my posts in other groups know that it has been years since I've seriously flamed anyone on the net)

I'm pissed. I mean really pissed !

I've been betrayed, big time. Based on my evaluation of Q+E MultiLink/VB, I've made recommendations to some large clients that they change over from VB's Data Controls to Q+E. During my evaluations I didn't even consider products that carried per seat royalties, since my clients typically have several hundred to thousands of potential client seats.

Now it seems the boneheads who've "acquired" Q+E have found the perfect way to kill a product. Piss off your customers by telling them that they're going to have to pay more for a product upgrade than you did for the original product !

So, effective today, I'm going to be contacting my clients and telling them that they should complete any already-started projects using the current release of Q+E, but that any future work should absolutely be done with something else.

And to the new owners of Q+E (Intersolv ?) I sincerely hope that your company dies a quick but extremely painful death.

... FLAME OFF Well I guess I feel a little better now.

Thanks for your attention,
-brad albom
Software Engineering Solutions, Inc
2685 Marine Way, Suite 1215, Mountain View, CA 94043

Voice: (415) 969-0141
Fax  : (415) 969-0177
Email: brada_at_sesinc.com
Alt  : brada_at_via.net