>>>However, we have decided not to make any announcments ahead of time, partially because we are not going to ship before we think it is ready. And with that I mean:
>>>
>>>1) Product is bug free and feature complete.
>>
>>You will be the first to accomplish this. :)
>
>But credit for being the (only?) one to have this as an objective! Starting out with the premise that bug-free code is impossible, as most seem to, is guaranteed to result in buggy code. Shipping because "delivery is a feature" is also guaranteed to deliver buggy code. (Attempting to) save development costs by accepting that 80% tested is good enough to ship is guaranteed to deliver buggy code.
>
>I heartily congratulate Markus for this (all too rare these days) objective!!!
>
>I took the serious approach here because too many people interpret joking about something being a license to practise that somethng in fact.
>
>cheers

Jim;

Software marketing is taking a different turn as I see some companies do not provide updates, will provide updates for a limited time or you pay an annual “subscription fee” for updates. From the latter business plan I get the feeling I am paying to have the company correct bugs after I pay for the product. This takes on an entirely different software model if you will.

1. Ship product (the sooner the better – we have to have market share- first to market and all that)

2. Have customer purchase a subscription to have a finite period of updates.

After questioning one company with a subscription plan, I was told, “We cannot afford to pay for correcting bugs so our customers have to pay”! I thought when we purchased software it would be reasonably bug free and my expectation has been to receive updates as they become available.

This does make sense though for those that create code and do not care if it works or not. Put in all your resources to create the new product, sell it and then have the customer fund your effort to make it work. I like that! I will give you updates if you pay for their development. After all, there is “no free lunch”!


Tom