Re: MF having issues?

"HeyBub" <heybubNOSPAM@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Jeff York wrote:
"Pete Dashwood" <dashwood@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Personally, I believe the whole marketing model is wrong. The
runtime fees are simply stifling any possible hope of new
development by software houses who want to sell their products in a
competitive marketplace.

Exactly. Who, in their right mind, is going to start new development
using a compiler that not only costs quite a lot to buy in the first
place but also has not inconsiderable ongoing costs that bear no
relation to the original capital expenditure but only to generated
revenue?

Virtually all store-front leases actually charge a percentage of retail
revenue with a minimum. A shop-keepers rent is, therefore, a fee based on
his success.

Not in the UK where I'm from. As it is, a runtime fee isn't based on
revenue - it's a fixed charge per installation. probably not much of a
handicap if you're selling systems worth tens of thousands of pounds,
but something of a killer for someone who wants to develop a
mass-market product that will retail at a hundred quid!

The idea of runtime fees when added to an expensive compiler is
absurd. Maybe giving the compiler away for nothing and charging
runtimes might *just* be acceptable,

The classic Gillette model: Give away the razor and sell the blades. (Now
updated to "give away the 'phone and sell the minutes.")

but the present method is as
ludicrous as me buying a truck and then having to pay the manufacturer
a percentage of the revenues that I generate by using said vehicle in
my business.

As in a truck lease whose rental is based on miles driven? Happens all the
time.

Once again, I've never seen a vehicle lease like that in the UK. There
are leases that have mileage limits which incur penalties on the
"buyback" clause, but I've never seen one like you describe.

Someone senior at MF needs to understand that if you buy a product,
you buy it. Full Stop. What you do with it thereafter is between you
and your deity of choice.

No, what you do thereafter is contingent on the contract entered into by the
original purchase. If you don't approve of the original contract's
conditions, such as seen on the Sopranos ("That's $50 now and a blow-job
later."), then give the deal a miss.

Which is, of course, what a lot of software houses, my own included,
have done - hence MF's decline in revenue.

I wish that we hadn't, I like COBOL as a language and it's the best
fit for the software that we produce, but the level of runtime fees
makes the product completely uneconomic.

--
Jeff. Ironbridge, Shrops, U.K.
jeff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (remove the x..x round jackfield for return address)
and don't bother with ralf4, it's a spamtrap and I never go there.. :)

.... "There are few hours in life more agreeable
than the hour dedicated to the ceremony
known as afternoon tea.."

Henry James, (1843 - 1916).


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