On 07:46 PM 7/06/2002 -0400, Phillip Stevens said: >AuL> It will probably be worth it *if* tool productivity continues to improve >AuL> and serious bugs become an endangered species. >.... >AuL> but it was priced so that most any serious designer could afford it. > >This is exactly the position I find myself in. I bought in "cheap" >with the version 3.x series, and have upgraded all along the way >through 98, 99, 99SE. I will now have a very difficult decision to make.
Since you started with V3 and then paid for upgrade to 98, 99 (99SE was the free issue) you have already been paying some sort of maintenance. My beef is that the imperative to impress us (and so make us want to part with our hard-earned) is less with the annual maintenance model. By "impress us" I do not mean with marketing features - I mean things that make design quicker and/or more reliable. >In my view Protel has "raised the bar" with ATS, a yearly support fee, >and the higher prices. While I might have been willing to dismiss those >"serious bugs" in past products, with their lower product costs, lower >upgrade fees, and with the free service packs which were available, those >days now seem to be over. Yep - I agree, if you charge big prices you need to deliver big performance and this means not just features it means robustness. <..snip other stuff I agree with..> >Altium/Protel needs to do an *above average* and very thorough job in >it's beta test program of DXP this time. As you see, my standards are >higher now. > >---Phil Your not alone - upgrade decisions are now more likely to be very carefully taken rather than the older days of do it and see if it works for you. Ian Wilson * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * To post a message: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * To leave this list visit: * http://www.techservinc.com/protelusers/leave.html * * Contact the list manager: * mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * Forum Guidelines Rules: * http://www.techservinc.com/protelusers/forumrules.html * * Browse or Search previous postings: * http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
