Getting Screwed by Informix!?

cwoodall@vth4.vth.colostate.edu (Con Woodall) writes: >> > Is there anyone who can help me with upgrade from version 4 to 5 >> > or higher, what are the differences regarding 4GL? >> > [...cool .sig deleted...] One thing I've noticed is that Informix begins to bend you over when you upgrade! While I'm not one that is often apt to flame, I'm about to start making a living at it. Last fall we came to the realization that we needed to add I-Star to our system. Since we had support with Informix and were paying them $3500+/year for *1* 80486 Unix box, we called support and asked to upgrade from version 4 to 6. (because 6 comes with I-Star). We were told the following: Don't upgrade to 6 because it's offered with USER based pricing. Because we own an unlimited user license (based on platform), we were told maintenance would be $50000/year based on per user licensing! OK - so what did they recommend? Going to 5.x. This would allow us to stay platform based rather than user based and maintenance would cost $3500/year or so (we were told $3500-5000, depending on cost increases). The change cost me about $5000 in cost for I-Star (which is a separate product in 5.x) and changes to our licenses due to Informix's rules... Much to our surprise, we didn't get a renewal in the mail. When we called to ask about it we were told "We have them on hold because we're changing the way the license is issued and basing it on user based *AND* platform pricing. We are now being told (after forking over $5000 3 months ago for "upgrades" to 5.x instead of 6.x) that maintenance is going to be $6000-$50000 depending on the number of users we declare and that Informix will not offer us any support until will declare a number of users and pay that rate. Personally, I think this is outright misrepresentation. I would never have written a check to this company if I had been told they were going to change the rules. Now we are in a *REAL* dilemma. If, 3 months ago, the Informix rep wouldn't have lied to me I would have upgrade to 6.x and declared my number of users. This would have freed me from my "Platform based" limitations but locked me to "user based" support. I am now being told that I am locked *BOTH WAYS* In other words, I must pay by the number of users but can't change platforms either! Of course, we also have an additional problem. The accounting package we run on Informix is FourGen. It is platform based. Even if Informix was fully user based, I would be locked into this machine with the FourGen packages. Certainly every other small-medium sized company that develops their own Informix packages isn't getting this kind of screwing are they? I don't know many companies willing to write a $50k check for maintaining software running on !1! 80486! What is everyone else doing? At $50k, I am considering dumping Informix, hiring an extra programmer and porting all of my software to a PC network based platform. If *ANYONE* has input as to how I can solve this dilemma I would appreciate your input. I am just really ticked at this problem right now. Thank you for your help. -- Daniel Wynalda/N8KUD/SYSOP |Consultants Connection BBS | 616-363-6680 danielw@wybbs.wynalda.com |2783 Sandalwood Ct NE | Grand Rapids, MI 49505