I have purchased (and sometimes used! :-P ) Serif's products ever since they made a free version that installed from one floppy disk. It seems that whenever I get a call from one of their telemarketers, they are amazed at how long I have been a customer and begin to treat me like I am part of their family. Of course, if I was 'really' a partof their family, they would give the software to me for free! Ahem! Anyway...I have always enjoyed their calls, and end up having long conversations with whomever calls me. And, no matter whether I need it or not, I always seem to break down and buy the latest and the greatest they have to offer. I declined on this lastest updated version of PagePlus 8 + PDF since I have both PagePlus 8 and Adobe Acrobat 5.0.5. The software is good, and is well worth the little that they charge for it. The kind of money they are asking for their software is what all companies should be selling at. But, their software has had its failings and idiosyncrasies,too. I think what has been most difficult for anyone in the U.S. is in learning something that is layed out differently, isn't exactly 'the norm'. Of course, we all know what 'the norm' is, especially here in the States (pissst! M$!!)
I confess that after all that I have of their stuff, I never get much use out of it. It's not their fault that I have too many irons in my fire and just don't have the time to learn something new. But, Anne, this is a company that I would like to see do well. I like their attitude, their drive, and their dedication and willingness to listen to their users. I am sure that there is a very large entry in their system with all the 'ear bending' I have done with thier people over the last 8 or so years. ;-) If you are interested in graphical design for Desktop publishing and Web work, and don't need to give the output to a print beaureau (at least in the States), I think you will like their stuff. If they would let me transfer my licenses to you, I would send you the previous versions I have, just to get rid of them! :-) T ----- Original Message ----- From: "Anne Wilson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2002 1:41 PM Subject: [newbie] Sort of on-topic Yesterday I had a long conversation with Ron Cox at Serif Software. If you are UK you will probably know of them, but for those who don't, they product inexpensive (by windows standards) software that does most of what the market-leading expensive software does. Their flagship is PagePlus 8 + PDF, a desktop-processing program that has excellent booklet printing (A4 folded to make A5 booklet, with pages printed in appropriate pairs), and can convert the whole to PDF. I took the opportunity to tell him that there is a need for software like theirs for Linux. This led him on to tell me that the company has now been bought back by the original programmer team, and are now free to make their own decisions about the future. They are fully aware of the greed and bad practices of M$, and of the growing awareness in the marketplace. He talked also of the increasing awareness of security issues. They are, however, still small, and the market constrains them to write for the maximum market. He said that they simply could not afford the development costs to write for Linux, much as they would like to, so they had made a conscious decision that they would write to the highest degree of standards compliance they could manage. They believe that this will ensure that their products work with any of the windows emulators. It's not the ideal answer, but I did like the degree of awareness I heard, and I think they have made the best decision they can at this stage. Meanwhile, before Christmas I intend to get Win4Lin and try it. Anne ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
