Hi everybody!
Thanks Bruce for moving the list so I can participate again. QL Today ======== Issue 1 of Volume 7 is going to go to the printer - we will have it ready for the US show. We are missing several of our faithful readers. If you have not renewed, please let us know if you want to. Please let us also know if you don't want to. Also, a good time to start a subscription :-) SMSQ/E ====== Ouch, ouch! Although I don't think it can be stopped now I fear a lot of damage has been done and nobody is really happy. Why? When I saw that the term "open source" was used I thought that this was a big mistake. It raised expectations and demands, although it was not a promise. And we all see it was a mistake. Imagine, Wolfgang had had asked Tony quietly, then we had this meeting at Eindhoven, and came out with a decision that things continued as before, but Wolfgang taking TTs position and be much more active and allows the users to participate in development. Whether the royalty/license situation would have changed or not would not matter much - but by allowing others to actively participate, without all the demands, we would be in a much better and relaxed position - everybody! I believe that was Wolfgangs intention, and now he has to go through all this trouble. Don't give up, Wolfgang. Financial aspects. My situation: - for QPC, nothing changes on my side, and will not change. - for the other SMSQ/E's, I'll loose out, because all the versions I sold in the last 6 or 12 months or whatever went to Roy. I will loose this share now. For Peter, things improve: previously, he had to pay DM 70,- plus VAT Royalty (this is EUR 41,52). Now he only has to pay 10 EUR - less than 25% only. That REALLY is something to complain about, isn't it? And that REALLY shows we were "acting in the background" for our own benefit, doesn't it? Support: to me it seems that the people who never or very rarely attended the QL shows mainly ask for "support". The following applies to most QL dealers, I'd say, but it is definitely true for "the official resellers", Roy and me. We also offered people to come to the shows and discuss problems with us. We reply to letters, EMails, phonecalls (no 0900) and faxes, we try to help people sorting out the problems somehow if possible, we go to every QL show we can to be present, support the QL scene, we look into problems which people ask as about at shows. And travelling IS quite expensive. It has (sort of) doubled since when I started (just considering the petrol costs) and the prices remained stable, but the number of products to sell dropped and the number of customers too. Does anybody seriously think that Roy and myself earn our income from selling SMSQ? As we pointed out several times: we like going to QL shows because we like to meet nice people and support the QL scene. Maybe the "conspiracy" theory can stop now - and if the people who think we do earn a fortune by selling SMSQ/E REALLY think so, then they should go, quit their main job and become a SMSQ/E reseller for all the SMSQ versions but QPC - I will stop advertising them immediately. Jochen
