Desperately Need Legal FrameMaker 8!

[Dov Isaacs]

For the record, I personally don't "get a vote" on these types of
issues either. One of the issues of selling licenses for older versions
has to do with the requirements for continuing technical support for
the older versions. But don't get me started on that.

	- Dov

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Alan Houser [mailto:arh at groupwellesley.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, February 18, 2009 7:54 PM
> To: Dov Isaacs
> Cc: Frame Users
> Subject: Re: Desperately Need Legal FrameMaker 8!
> 
> I don't get a vote, but I would love to see Adobe reconsider this policy
> with FrameMaker 9. Historically, even "major" FrameMaker releases were
> evolutionary, not revolutionary, in the design and behavior of the
> application. While perhaps not ideal, it was reasonably straight-forward
> to maintain mixed-version FrameMaker deployments.
> 
> Not so with FrameMaker 9. We have a new user interface, new behaviors
> (keyboard shortcuts come to mind), and new functionality. I would not
> want to run a mixed FM8/FM9 deployment in an organization. But the
> alternative is to upgrade everybody when an organization needs as few as
> one new FrameMaker license.
> 
> I acknowledge that Adobe is in business to make a profit, and Adobe
> _wants_ everybody to upgrade. But there are costs and side effects of
> upgrading, particularly in workgroup deployments. Policies that "force"
> upgrades can lead to customer resentment and pursuit of
> non-Adobe-sanctioned sales channels.
> 
> Adobe knows its markets far better than I do, but I bet Adobe could
> still sell plenty of FM8 seats, with acceptably low cannibalization of
> FM9 sales, if FM8 remained in the price book.
> 
> -Alan
> ---
> 
> Alan Houser, President
> Group Wellesley, Inc.
> 412-363-3481
> www.groupwellesley.com