I didn't want to reply to the numerous negative posts here and elsewhere that claim Borland is aiming only at the enterprise customers now. But I must at least say this.
There are those who long for the "good old days" - Turbo Pascal 3 under 40K bytes (including IDE, editor and compiiler, more for the help) on a floppy, writing sneaky little utilities that add to (or replace or undermine..) DOS. Those days are long gone, in case anyone hadn't realized. As for the cost per unit, yes, it has to keep increasing with the complexity and amount of functionality that is included. I only use a fraction of the functionality, and I know I use a different subset than many others use. I would like to buy only what I need, but, hey, next contract I might need another chunk and I'd hate to install it bit by bit. As for ECO - it may just be the next great leap forward that Delphi 1 was in its time. As for Enterprise and Architect versions, I could hardly survive on just the Professional version, and I no longer work for a large enterprise. I have upgraded only alternate versions (odd-numbered, fortunately, and relatively bug-free - Delphi bugs have cost me very little time at all). In fact I would have been happy if Borland had only released that many upgrades. I admit the latest upgrade price is high, and I will delay upgrading from D7 until I have a definite project/contract to pay for it and can definitely use its new functionality, e.g. ECO. The cost of ECO and the Enterprise/Architect versions seems very high for a one-man business. But is it really as high as it seems? Maybe 40 to 80 hours of your time. Out of 1500 or so hours in a working year, it is a very small percent. With ECO there could also be time savings. You and I think of the new functionality and whether we need it or not. Borland must also make sales to survive, and you and I are among its main customers. No longer a vast number of $100 sales but a smaller number of $3000 sales. Sales to professional developers, *not* just to enterprises. Borland's marketing may be wide of the mark, but as long as their technical teams deliver the goods, I'll be a customer. My $0.02 worth... Glen .. > If Borland makes a BIG change in direction and manages to give a little > thought to those of us NOT working for Fortune 500 companies, well....? .. __________________________________________________ Delphi-Talk mailing list -> [email protected] http://www.elists.org/mailman/listinfo/delphi-talk
