Well it's a bit hard for CF, because of the pricing model. CF is priced per Server, meanwhile all the other technologies you mention can be hosted for (relatively) free. .NET makes it up by selling more Windows Server licenses, and PHP and RoR are free.
Microsoft has done a good job advertising to universities, where they pretty much give away a copy of Visual Studio to every student. This is something that is free for them, and it helps push the universities to teach .NET, and C#, etc. Once students graduate, they will bring these skills to the workplace, and MS will make money by selling more Windows Servers (for hosting), and Visual Studio (for development). Although Adobe has free development editions, the educational editions are not free (I think they should be). I believe every university should run their websites in CF as a marketing tool. (Mine recently converted from CF 4.5 to PHP. If they were using MX+, I doubt they would've converted). Adobe should also push to have ColdFusion taught as part of the curriculum (at least as an elective) instead of ASP.NET, or at least as an alternative. They should provide free and easy educational materials that teachers can use to teach CF. I would love to volunteer to teach CF in my alma mater, but I wouldn't even know where to start in terms of teaching materials. Having a lab with a CF server on every computer is going to require powerful hardware, and running a developer edition on a shared server is not allowed as per Adobe. Maybe if Adobe got their act together, we'd have a lot more graduates actually knowing what CF is and not thinking that it's a piece of crap that most people remember from the v 4.5 days. Just my $0.02 Russ > -----Original Message----- > From: CFMike [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2008 4:13 PM > To: CF-Talk > Subject: RE: ColdFusion: Some People Just Don't Know Any Better > > As a CF developer for many years, I often feel as if I work twice as hard > selling my services to a potential small-biz client, than the closest PHP > developer. Not only am I selling myself, I also *have to* sell CF. > > >From my potential client's perspective, they really don't care much on > how > easy it would be for me, the CF developer, to code their project. They do > care about (1) how much it will cost them on top of my fee; (2) how easy > it > would be to find help in case I am not available. > > We CF developers and zealots, of course, could make all the justification > in > the world to make the case of the points above in favor of CF. That is not > the problem. > > The problem is that, why do I, the CF developer, need to keep on selling > the > advantages of CF to my clients. Shouldn't Adobe work twice as hard to > reach > out to the small businesses, so developers like me don't have to sell it > (or > at least make my selling efforts as easy as the PHP, .NET or the RoR guy)? > > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Mary Jo Sminkey [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2008 12:10 PM > > To: CF-Talk > > Subject: Re: ColdFusion: Some People Just Don't Know Any Better > > > > >I'm not surprised. The big question continues to be "What can Adobe do > > >to promote ColdFusion?" CF gets press on releases, and Adobe has > > >actively and aggressively marketed toward the government IT sector for > a > > >few years now. I just want to see the articles that say "Yeah, we're > > >migrating from .Net to ColdFusion. It's just a much more dynamic and > > >integrated platform." > > > > The problem a lot of people are mentioning as well is lack of > developers. > > It becomes a vicious circle...developers jump to another platform > because > > there are more jobs, so it becomes harder for employers to find ones > that > > are experienced in CF, so they switch, which makes jobs even harder to > > find, etc. So it really has to be a two-pronged attack...getting more > > people to want to use CF for their sites, but also getting more > developers > > to learn it. And of course, trying to keep hosting options as well. I > > really do think the cost of the server is an issue, when it comes to > > getting more people on board. Certainly at the Enterprise-level it's not > > an issue (or shouldn't be), but for small-time developers that want to > run > > their own box, it's a hard sell. And these are the folks that are needed > > to really grow support for the platform. I ran into that just this week > > with someone that was in college and wanted to learn my software and put > > up a store using his own box. I might have been willing to do some kind > of > > educational discount, but the cost of ColdFusion pretty much made the > > whole discussion moot. I'm hoping eventually Railo or SmithProject might > > become more viable as low-cost options...but even if they do, they're > > likely to be options only those of us that are already invested in CF > will > > know about. I imagine this is something a lot of us that sell CF > > applications run into...if you sell a .Net or PHP application, it's not > a > > big deal who someone is hosting with, as the vast majority of hosts > offer > > these. If you have a CF application though, if a normal merchant finds > you > > through Google or some other application/script listing site, 9 times > out > > of 10 they are not going to be able to run your application because > their > > host doesn't run CF (or they are using...gasp...GoDaddy!) So before you > > can even sell you on your application, you have to sell them on > switching > > hosts. It's a tough situation, for sure. It's one thing I really liked > > with the Railo licensing, which works with the way their server can > > configure different "webs" as separate entities and then license each > > individually, versus a more costly full-priced server. It's a great low- > > cost entry that is attractive to a small developer, while still > requiring > > someone that is using the server to host many sites to pay a reasonable > > price. > > > > > > > > > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:298266 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
