Richard Yates wrote:
I realized that we are into June now - the usual time of year that speculation begins about the release and anticipated new features of the next version of Finale. Unlike other years, however, a maintenance updater to fix the most glaring bugs and steps-backward of the last version is nowhere to be seen.
Is this year really so different or am I just being too picky?
There was an updater for both the windows version and the mac versions, if I recall correctly. I'm seeing Finale2004b showing at the top of my screen when I run it.
As to whether it fixed the most glaring problems and backwards steps, well, that is debatable. But the updaters have been released.
But this year IS very different -- MakeMusic really stumbled in getting the OSX version out the door and then they had to scramble to get the print-to-pdf feature of OSX to work properly.
They didn't have much time to get around to the normal bug-fixes, but now that FinOSx is working more or less at the same level as the FinWin is working they can get back to the usual routine:
1) release buggy version with new features that not everybody wants or needs;
2) release interim bug fix that fixes some of the new features but reintroduces old bugs;
3) release another interim bug fix to fix the interim bug fix;
4) repeat from step 1 a year later.
The only difference now is that the development team isn't quite as large, with some developpers having been moved to the SmartMusic program, which is where MakeMusic is betting its future really lies.
Annual SmartMusic subscriptions from schools and their students and private teachers and their students is a cash-cow that MakeMusic is gambling will continue to grow while the Finale market further stagnates with some new customers each year replacing those long-time users who drop out because of retirement or change of interest or job which no longer requires them to use the most recent version of Finale.
-- David H. Bailey [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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