Re: NewEra Pricing

> Did anyone else notice the NewEra pricing near the end of one of the > postings of the Informix NewEra press releases? For those that didn't > it was: > > 4495 USD per client (read developer) for the development version > 495 USD per client (read user) for the runtime Yup, those are pretty zany numbers. However, one should look at the "competitors" and what they are doing: (these are rough estimate prices) PowerBuilder $3000 SQLWindows $3000 DigiTalk PARTS $2000 ParcPlace VisualWorks $3000 The details are that both PowerBuilder and SQLWindows throw in a local client backend (SQLBase for SQLWindows and WATCOM SQL for PowerBuilder). Hardly your "Enterprise Mission Critical" backend, but you can at least develop against them. (Well, I don't know about WATCOM...'weak' seems pretty generous a term for it to me) The other detail is that PowerBuilder, SQLWindows and DigiTalk don't have runtime fees. VisualWorks does I think. With PB and SQLW, you'll need a "Connection" module of some kind to hit Informix, and they do bill for that on a per user basis ($100ish I think). I don't know how DigiTalk or VisualWorks talk to the backends. But, one thing that is notably missing from any literature I've seen WRT who they're competeing against, is NEXTSTEP. They have prices that sound like Informix. NEXTSTEP Developer $2995 NEXTSTEP User $ 795 (for deployment) They've added a new Enterprise Object Framework for DB Connections, but I'm not sure what they charge for it. The funny thing is that NS already has all of those wonderful buzzwords that NewEra is touting (Object Oriented, Class Libraries, Database Independence, Application Partitioning, etc). They've had all of that for 2 years. Obj-C isn't 4GL, but it's not too bad. And I haven't quite heard anyone whose said that they think the NS development envrionment sucks... Of course, NS doesn't run on Windows, but that's a good thing. Informix suggests that the current 1st Generation tools aren't up to the task. That they're a maintenance nightmare, they won't scale and they won't perform and everyone trying to leverage off of them are beating their heads against the walls to make them jump through hoops. I'll agree that modular development and code-reuse aren't super strong points of MOST of the packages out there now (except for the SmallTalk based ones). NewEra may do better. Anyone got any sore-head experiences that relate to that? Isn't scalability more a backend problem? And how many of these issues regarding "added complexity" are dependant on the fact that they're running on Windows in the first place? Also, does NewEra come with a WhizBangHotDamnOhBoy Report Writer? I didn't see one in the literature. So, on the one hand NewEra is "competitive" in it's pricing. I do fear that smaller developers will end up moving away from Informix for tools at rates like this. It's hard to justify $4500 when you've got PB Desktop for $250, Gupta is giving their product away and MS would like to get VB and Access shrinkwrapped and stocked next to the candy and tabloids at the front counter of your Supermarket. And as long as you're on Windows, I don't think the tool is going to help you overcome it's inherent limitations that "Mission Critical Enterprise Level" (What does this mean anyway?) seem to need. The only thing NewEra will give you over any other tool is a better link into the database. Other than that, I think NewEra is pretty cool! :-) Will (villy@collinscomp.com) -- NEXTSTEP Bigot, Windows in moderation.