Now OT, I suppose. RE: Adobe pricing policies (was: FrameMaker 12 released)

[Rick Quatro]

Excellent point by Syed. Another point that is easy to miss in this
discussion: If all of Adobe's products had the level of quality control that
FrameMaker has (long-standing and new bugs, outdated and incomplete
documentation, etc.), Adobe certainly wouldn't be as successful as it is. In
my opinion, FrameMaker's upgrade pricing is way too high, especially for
those who got stuck with FrameMaker 9. Adobe should be especially generous
with previous version users to keep them in the fold. 

Also, at $400, I doubt if FrameMaker XML Author is going to be able to
compete with other XML editors out there. The idea is fantastic, but the
cost needs to be around $100-150 a seat.

No disrespect intended for Max or Kapil, just the way I see it.

Rick Quatro
Carmen Publishing Inc.
585-366-4017
rick at frameexpert.com

Maxwell Hoffman said:
> For another viewpoint, Adobe was just named in the top 100 companies 
> to work for by Fortune. Our 2013 revenues considerably exceeded 
> projections. So "somebody" out there is happy with Adobe.  ;-)

Perhaps. :) But, at what cost?

The unhappy ones are probably the small users - like myself - who helped
FrameMaker become what it is and Adobe *clearly* does not care about us
anymore. That is unlike the founders of Frame Technology who I met many
years ago ... and the founders of Adobe too, I would hope!

Financial success by large companies is not the only measure of success that
matters. It is why in my 35+ years of work, I have chosen to do many small
startups and try to only work for small companies. My current startup (I was
one of the founders) now has 80 employees and I bet that, *collectively*, we
are a happier bunch of people than all the folks at Adobe. But we will
*never* make those top lists due to our tiny size! :)

FWIW, the largest company I ever worked for was Analog Devices (helped their
small 60 person semiconductor division grow large ... my first job out of
college). Even there, supporting small customers was a matter of pride for
us - an *individual* could buy a single part from them directly when I
worked there.

Z