From: "Paul Smith" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> I didn't comment on it at the time, but I was intrigued by the suggestion
> that MM should give CFAS away, and concentrate on productivity products
for
> developers. While a zero price is not what I think would be necessary for
> CFAS to gain many more developers, a lower price would and would make CFAS
> more price-competitive with the dark side.
>
> I suggest MM should look at this seriously to see if they can convince
> themselves there is some lower price point at which they'll do as well if
> not better than they are now. Note that while a lower CFAS is in my
> interest, having more developers competing is not. So my suggestion is
not
> entirely self-serving...
>
I think I was the earliest (1/16/2001) on this list to announce I was
firing up a few FreeBSD/PHP/MySQL boxes in response to the original
Allaire/Macromedia announcement. My participation on this list has
ebbed since that time though I have read the list as frequently as
I have the past years (daily).
I would like to have my interests and time budgeting decisions re-focused
on CFAS. Here are a few thoughts on what might bring me back ...
1. Perhaps a relatively cheap 'subscription' to a fully functional version
of CFAS aimed at the small time, single developer who scripts, maintains,
hosts and promotes mutliple client's web sites on a single or small cluster
of servers. A CFExpress that would be worth keeping loaded longer than
a few hours.
2. Such a subscription would be a semi-annual(?) CD purchase of an
updated cfengine comprising the full suite of functions and tags
available in any version. It would not comprise RAD tools, server farm
utilities, Spectra like management suites, jrun devices,
studio/ultradev/etc.,
versioning control or editing software. All those extras should certainly
be available according to interest and budget.
Successful software has the characteristic of attaining that lofty goal of
being seen as an assumed part of a net capable business's basic facilites.
Think of a pyramid - a very wide base of many small guys *USING* CFAS
topped by layers of more involved hosters deploying thousands of sites.
A pyramid is a most stable constuction and very difficult to tip over.
I can envision some layer of the CF pyramid being companies to whom
the small guys could outsource services that are beyond the small
developers capacity and would call for a more complete collection
of tools beyond the basic, core CFAS. Spectra could be
reworked so that a small developer who is at the point of turning
down new business because of time and management problems can
buy large scale site management services from someone in the
cf community.
Why bother with any of this? It seems that there are many, many
small time CF developers who find it easy to find non-Fortune500
customers. In aggregate, there just might be as much activity at
the base of the community equal to the sum of the higher-rollers
combined cash flow. No one knows as there haven't been any
surveys directed at estimating this kind of data. One can only
go with one's perceptions and anectdotal experiences.
The bottom line is that Macromedia has an opportunity to encompass
both ends of the market if they can find a way to keep the entirety of
the community active, interested and involved. Making the cfengine
as ubiquitously available as possible might be the key to achieving that
goal.
At least, that's my opinion.
hope some may find these comments stimulating ...
I'm keeping my CF stuff close, but I need to keep ramping up
the fbsd/php solution.
Pan
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Structure your ColdFusion code with Fusebox. Get the official book at
http://www.fusionauthority.com/bkinfo.cfm
Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
