Jerry, We are in full agreement. In fact, we will not ship the first radio other than to beta testers until all basic functionality that is expected in a radio is incorporated and stable. No one will have to pay another dime to make basic things work properly. That doesn't meant that the software will have every feature known to man but it will do all the basic things very well (e.g. multiple Slice Receivers, QSK CW, SSB, AM, FM, CAT, etc.). The ground breaking new features will come in releases after that. Sounds like you won't care much about what comes after first one or two releases then.
73, Gerald Gerald Youngblood, K5SDR President and CEO FlexRadio Systems(TM) Email: [email protected] Web: www.flexradio.com <http://www.flex-radio.com/> Tune In Excitement (TM) PowerSDR(TM) is a trademark of FlexRadio Systems On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 1:12 PM, Jerry Flanders <[email protected]>wrote: > Many of us have committed significant amounts of money to fund the > upcoming software development. > > Most of us think that you will eventually deliver on the major promises > you are implying re the 6N00 series, and perhaps on the minor ones as well. > > But concerning your announced upgrade policy, please remember: As you > said, the software "is" the radio. And we are paying for a complete, > working radio. You might not have it actually completed within 2 years. > > I would, and I think most buyers would, be comforted if you committed to > delivering a truly working radio for the price we have committed to pay. > This might mean that the cutoff date for free "software upgrades" is the > date at which you deliver a relatively bug-free and relatively > full-featured product (your honest judgnent, not mine). I am not asking for > true "upgrades", only a genuinely workable radio with at least the same > software reliability and usefulness as other Ham manufacturers provide for > the initial purchase price. If the initial version of the software is truly > finished in the first year, I probably don't need a second year, free or > not. > > True "upgrades" that add significant functionality or features are not at > issue here - charge/subscribe/whatever for them. > > The model for responsibility for software product quality has been well > established: Microsoft charges me only when a truly new OS version (98, XP. > 7...) comes out. I don't have to pay yearly to simply make the released > version work properly - making it work was Microsoft's responsibility from > the time of initial release, and they honor that. > > If you are sure you can actually deliver a fully working, relatively > bug-free 6N00 radio within two years, you have nothing to lose in > re-stating your time-based commitment into a performance-based one. > > BTW, I ordered my 6500 Sunday evening. It will be my third Flex radio. I > am still using my SDR-1000 as well as my 5000/rx2. > > Jerry W4UK > > > > At 10:52 AM 5/22/2012, Gerald Youngblood wrote: > >> Hi Jim, >> >> We understand that charging for software upgrades is a business model that >> has not existed before in ham radio. Other manufacturers have limited >> capability for radically changing the functionality their radios through >> software so it does not make sense for them to charge. Those other radios >> are generally fixed function analog architectures that have only >> a tiny fraction of the computational power of the FLEX-6000 series. >> >> The software *is* the radio on the FLEX-6000 series. FlexRadio is a >> software company ... >> > > _______________________________________________ Flexedge mailing list [email protected] http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexedge_flex-radio.biz This is the FlexRadio Systems e-mail Reflector called FlexEdge. It is used for posting topics related to SDR software development and experimentalist who are using beta versions of the software.
