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A4 V7 How much?

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    A4 V7 How much?

    Isn't anyone a bit taken aback by what Alpha is charging for this update/upgrade? I'm a bit stunned. No major enhancements or changes and they are asking 50% more than I paid for any of the other past upgrades. I'm sure there will be many die-hard A4 users who will be fawning over this upgrade and making AlphaSoftware out to be a hero but all I know is every time I got an upgrade notice in the mail before they abandoned A4 and it's users, they always made it quite clear that in their eyes DOS would never be dead. Now they want $149 so my applications will function properly under windows the way it should have from the beginning. Sorry if I don't share everyone elses excitement and joy.

    Kerry

    #2
    RE: A4 V7 How much?

    Kerry;
    You write "they always made it quite clear that in their eyes DOS would never be dead". Now this is an eye-opener for me ... I never realized Alpha was in control of OS's; I had always thought Microsoft ran that area!

    And how many other software upgrade releases have you been able to buy recently that are DOS based? 5? 10? ... perhaps 0?You complain about $149. If $149 is too much, then I guess your time is pretty low priced as well. If the prevention (or at least major postponement) of learning a whole new product (i.e. any Windows based database software product), converting all your db's and applications etc. is not worth $149 to you, let me fill you in on reality!

    And since the DOS-based customer base has obviously declined tremendously since the release of A4v6 in 1995, there is a a much smaller base on which to spread the development costs. I only hope the V7 release is wildly financially successful for Alpha so that they will upgrade again and continue to allow me to work productively no matter what the MS monster does.

    Duncan

    Comment


      #3
      RE: A4 V7 How much?

      Kerry:

      I'm siding with Duncan. Generally, things cost what they cost. Alpha is doing many end users og Alpha 4 a BIG financial favor by allowing them to extend their "Old" app's forward into the Windows 2000 and XP environments for a relative pittance. A4V7 should buy the end users a few more productive years of use from those OLD DOS apps. All in all it is very good news for the end user.

      Kerry Jannsen obviously does not perceive any value at all from the upgrade effort on the part of Alpha. (I have a few clients who have a similar perspective on my work :) )

      I hope A4V7 is wildly financially successful. At the very least I hope it provides Alpha a stronger foundation on which to move forward in their development efforts with A5V5.

      Does anyone know if A5V5 will contain XML handling capabilities?

      Comment


        #4
        RE: A4 V7 How much?

        I agree with you. When I placed myorder, the lady told me that I would have to talk with tech support after I had installed it. The ad was right - just printer usage. My a4v6 works great in Win98. The What's New documentation touts the printer deal and als says SIGNIFICANT performance increases, but doesn't say where. I reindexed a large database, but didn't see it. After installing, I called up Alpha to point out that the documentation was for a4v6, and she wasn't suprised. So I guess we're supposed to pay $149 for a printer upgrade - she told me that nothing else had changed. No Granular Crash bugs were addressed or fixed. I have been a customer since A4v2 and have faithfully purchased every upgrade. I even bought 2 versions of A5 that I've never used. I would have to pay a whole bunch to get up to A5 v4.5. Well, I rambled on but I suppose I must now retire from the active customer list - I sent A4v7 back.

        Even the files in a4v7 are dated in 1995

        Too bad I really enjoyed A4. One good thing though, I got my RMA in about 5 seconds - must have had them handy I hust hope my refund is as quick as they took it out

        see ya

        Comment


          #5
          RE: A4 V7 How much?

          Kerry,

          I guess I miss the point. The 'upgrade' seems largely intended to help folks who were having specific problems with the newer operating systems and printers. If that ain't you, then the update may not be worth its cost to you.

          On the other hand, if you needed this to continue using your existing applications in the newer environments we're fortunate it's not priced even higher.

          For me the ability to use standard windows printer drivers is critical, so I was delighted to see the release, and the pricing seemed reasonable.

          -- tom

          Comment


            #6
            RE: A4 V7 How much?

            To Kerry:

            It all comes down to this in life -'You gotta pay to Play!' corelatively - 'You gotta Pay to work less'. You see, the Program continues to be the easiest and most efficient way for a non-programmer to get up and running in an application. The developers only rewards for this is MONEY.

            To Peter: Relish the past years experience you've had with this really great program. Too bad that you're not keeping A4v7 for 'just a printer upgrade'. We're all happy that we can now use Windows printers WITH A4V7 whatever the cost.

            'The files are still dated '95...' Great - if it's not broke, don't fix it. I have seven paid for applications out there and only one customer has experienced a granular crash since all of these were distributed over the years from 95 to present. The granular crash was caused by MY sloppy use of the program - NOT THE PROGRAM - and when I identified it, I fixed it, and Alpha continues to work properly.

            Make sure that the blame you apply goes to the proper place.

            Just some thoughts...

            Ken

            Comment


              #7
              RE: A4 V7 How much?

              Ken

              Absolutley Correct.
              Version 7 at $ 149.00 in year2000 dollars seems like a bargain, if it fits your needs. ( like working with windows 2000....my need).
              Think back about 10 years? The first version(s) of alpha 4,
              can't remember if it was v2 or v1...something, but the going price was over $400.00, then again a DOS computer system wit a blazing 4 meg RAM, running on a 386SX chip was selling at $ 2500.00.........

              Comment


                #8
                RE: A4 V7 How much?

                I agree, I'm currently running A4v6 on a W2k platform without any data loss or corruption. Since Alpha doesn't give us any detail about what the 'corruption' problem is, I have to assume that all the big development charge amounts to is new printer driver integration. Also, I agree that part of the responsibility of Alpha is to keep 6 current with any M$ OS changes. Sorry, but that's how the world works. Frankly, the whole thing sucks.

                Comment


                  #9
                  RE: A4 V7 How much?

                  JimF:

                  Sorry, but I disagree.

                  Alpha Software has no obligation to continue producing patches or updates to Vers. 6 so that you can move Vers 6 to a machine with an operating system that did not even exist when Vers. 6 was first released.

                  You bought it to work with a particular system. If you change to another system it seems to me that's your decision .

                  Comment


                    #10
                    RE: A4 V7 How much?

                    I just found a page from the PC/COMPUTING magazine of August 1992. It was part of a review of 16 databases available at the time. The following is quoted from the "Best Values for DOS" recommendations. By the way, the non-DOS recommendation was for a program than ran under Windows 1.0.

                    -----

                    Alpha Four 2.0

                    Alpha Four is a relatinal database with a complete set of sorting, reporting, and linking tools along with a text editor and the ability to open multiple databases at once. At $495, it's a major investment, but it may be all of the database you'll need for a long time.

                    -----

                    Quite a recommendation. And remember, this was 1992!

                    I'm thankful for all the effort that Alpha Software has put into the various versions of Alpha Four -- including Version 7.0.

                    Howard R. Elkes

                    Comment


                      #11
                      RE: A4 V7 How much?

                      Maybe you should frame that ADV, To remind us all of just how software price have dropped, not to mention these machines...the're at almost thow-away prices, now...like TV's and VCRs.

                      Thanks
                      Have A Great New Year

                      Comment


                        #12
                        RE: A4 V7 How much?

                        Tom:

                        As always you have a good point here.

                        ...."You bought it to work with a particular system. If you change to another system it seems to me that's your decision..."

                        The problem is.... When you go to buy a new system, your OS will be whatever that system includes. For example, while negotiating for a new system I'd say, "I want the OS to be Windows 3.11" - the vendor would laugh me out of the store.

                        Just recently I tried to buy a full version Windows 98 [not SE] on the internet and couldn't find anyone selling it. The search produced two vendors with full or upgrade versions of SE.

                        The OS then is probably NOT our choice. Further blame for this must be with Gates again and his hold on the OEM market. "You'll take whatever I'm selling right now!"

                        Ken

                        Comment

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