Re: Future of Informix
On 15 Apr 97 at 22:17, a highly annoyed Tim Schaefer wrote: > It all sounds so wonderful. > > Let's attempt to build pent up demand for yet another overpriced > highly inaccessable product that will be hard to support because > there won't be anybody in the human-resource pool/market to find > to support it, because the only way they can get their hands on > it is to beg borrow or steal it--or be an employee where the > company doesn't mind taking a bath on the training and licensing. > > Doesn't this counter what Phil said, that they need to get back > to the core products? Who cares about Universal Server? It's > a cool product but I've yet to see it OR Illustra. Where's the > demo? It is a valid point. I too have been banging my head lately against a wall of refusal to see the latest software. > You want to compete against Oracle, yet you ignore the success > Oracle enjoys. Why? Because of arrogance. You want the money > but you don't want to risk letting developers and end users get > their hands on the product without some asshole from marketing > involved. Awe what the heck, we can market to the Fortune 100 > cause they don't mind getting hosed. In Informix's defense, I'd like to offer the suggestion that allowing people to download software without instruction on use can damage your product's image. However, since we're not seeing the instruction anyway, maybe that's a moot point. > Universal Server: I'll believes it when I sees it. How much > beaurocracy will I have to go through to get it, and what will > the licensing be like? Will this be another product mix where > the vendor produces a bunch of half-ass products that are documented > poorly? I'd be willing to bet that the licensing is still > hosed and there will be sticky run-time licensing features that > will perpetuate the stupidity that is killing the products. > > Speaking of documentation, ditch the CD-DOCS and go with HTML. > Get with the program Informix. You CD-ROM Docs suck. Quit Amen. A quasi-proprietary runner needed, docs out of date as soon as they arrive, no chance of an easy update... :-( > wondering why your sales are off. Ask me. I'll tell you. > Grab the left side, I'll help with the right side, and we'll > pull your head out. I can't reach that far, but I must concur. It's always a problem when the marketing department believes its own press. Universal Server is a marvellous technological breakthrough, but most folks just want to manage their existing data easily and quickly. The whole UniServ market is IMHO small in terms of number of users relative to the entire market. Yes, Informix, we need to to maintain a technology advantage over the competition, but we also need you to do other aspects of "your job" competitively. I get the distinct impression that Informix feel that now that they have UniServ, they can sit back and wait for the world to come to them. And while Informix always tout their partnerships, there are a number of simple things that they can do to "add value" (ugh!) for these self-same partners. There are a number of very useful, easily accessible technologies out there, Informix. Please make use of them. -- Ciao, Billy Nose to the ground and ear to the grindstone in: Johannesburg Why is it hard for women to find men who are sensitive, caring and good looking? Because those men already have boyfriends.