Mike's experience is exactly what I am talking about in terms of there being an opportunity for MM to ride the open source wave and build a position for a revenue-generating product based on Eclipse. The RichPalette folks are making a go of it, and if MM isn't watching closely they may just wake up one day a couple of years down the road and find that He3 or some other Eclipse-based product has become the IDE of choice for building ColdFusion apps.
I agree with Jim's earlier point that IBM (largely a services company with vast resources) is different than Macromedia, which relies heavily on licensing for revenue at this point. But MM still has to play in the market, which means dealing with open source. Five years from now Eclipse variants will be a LOT more mature and will either be a direct threat to revenue or a platform for growth, IMO. >Calvin not quite. CFEclipse, I can see, is a terrific development, >but as I found to my cost, if installation doesnt go right, it's very >very difficult to fix. Support is dependent on the ample goodwill >of the people developing it, but still there is no obligation on >anyone to make sure it all works. > >This is no criticism of the folks who are developing the CFEclipse >product, but I found it difficult to download (It took more than an >hour to start downloading by the time i negotiated the maze of >sourceforge) and then installation didn't go perfectly - I wasn't sure >which of the 45 files i was supposed to be downloading, and even then >it wasnt a fullly bundled package. So. having a problematic >download and installation, everything went downhill from there. > >Several of the patient and helpful people working on CFEclipse tried >to help, but unlike a paid-for package like StudioMX, I had no right >to DEMAND support. I could not insist on whatever it took to get it >all going properly for me. IN the end i had to just cross it off my >list as another >probably-good-product-i-have-to-have-another-go-at-one-day. > >That's the difference between a user-supported open source application >and a fully commercial paid-for app. > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Find out how CFTicket can increase your company's customer support efficiency by 100% http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=49 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:4:190173 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:4 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
