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| Subject: | Re: [gislist] what do we pay maintenance for ? (was : ESRI
support????) |
| Date: |
03/21/2005 02:50:01 AM |
| From: |
Michael Gould |
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IMHO the GIS industry is no more to blame than the rest of the wider IT =
industry. There is a major software crisis afloat (this is a widespread =
opinion one can read in IEEE and ACM magazines, among other sources). =
Vendors have become accustomed to selling betas as 1.0, and to releasing =
more and more revisions, faster and faster. This practice is unacceptable =
in the car industry, the home electronics industry, the pharmaceutical =
industry...etc. But in the software industry it has become the norm, and =
we (users) are becoming accustomed to buying and then fixing: we buy the =
software, then we buy the installation, then we buy the training on how to =
use it, then we buy the consulting to customize it, then we buy the =
consulting to fix it, then we buy the migration when the version changes =
radically or the vendor is bought out by a rival. Nice life cycle.
I suspect they get away with this practice, in part, because with so many =
variables in the software/hardware/wetware mix, they can usually find a way =
to convince us that --in any particular case-- their piece is not the =
weakest link.
M Gould
At 09:24 21/03/2005, Gary Hubbs wrote:
>--- Bill Thoen <bthoen@gisnet.com> wrote:
>...
> > using GISlist to get tech
> > support with ArcView or ArcIMS or whatever is just plain poor netiquette
> > now that there are so many alternatives.
> >
> > - Bill Thoen
>
>I couldn't agree more !!!! (and hope that people post more appropriately)
>
>Now, to try and refocus the discussion to something Sonny mentioned but no=
one
>has really picked up on :
>
>WHY DO SO MANY OF US TURN TO FORUMS TO GET HELP ?
>
>Do GIS vendors adequately support their products ? (Ever read the SW lice=
nse
>fineprint that always says the vendor guarantees nothing ?) Let's hear so=
me
>feedback from users on whether they think the ever-increasing cost of =
>"software
>maintenance" (often 15 - 20 % of purchase price per year) is worth it !
>{Perhaps some people will need to post anonymously ?)
>
>Are the products so difficult to use or documentation so poor that solutio=
ns
>cannot be found by searching the "on-line help" ?
>
>Why do vendors respond slowly to fixing bugs instead of saying "it may be =
>fixed
>in the next release (if enough people complain)."
>
>
>Why (or is the procuct so buggy
>Is the pressure of What is the ever-increasing cost of maintenance
>
>
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-----------------------
Michael Gould
Information Systems Department
(Lenguajes y Sistemas Inform=E1ticos)
Universitat Jaume I
E-12071 Castell=F3n, Spain
http://www.mgould.com
GeoInfo group http://www.geoinfo.uji.es
and TeIDE SDI consortium http://redgeomatica.rediris.es/teide/
2005 Vespucci summer school http://www.vespucci.org
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