Delphi beta testing a "premium" privilege?

[Dalija Prasnikar 1341]

9 minutes ago, Oberon82 said:

Delphi is dead end. Pay to see roadmap is ridiculous.

It is not pay to see the roadmap. There is no longer a roadmap as such. But those that participate in beta testing have a bit more information about what is coming next in immediate and for some parts the release after that sooner than it is publicly available.

[Brian Evans 83]

Part of me is just grateful Delphi for Windows with the VCL is actively developed and they are still willing to attempt some larger updates like the LSP. I have a smaller code base so don't suffer from the current LSP problems as much as others. All the other improvements have me enjoying 11.2 more than any release in a long time. Myself I would prefer wide ranging consistent improvements and fixes over trying to introduce the "next big thing". I think an IDE can be a case where the whole is greater than just the sum of the parts due to how things are integrated. Felt that since Turbo Pascal 4.0 under MS-DOS - editor/compiler/debugger all in one with a good manual made it an amazing product. Delphi sometimes feels the same but it is a much larger product so easier to hit rough spots.

 

A lot of other development environments and especially GUI libraries have been replaced, killed off or frozen in time over the decades. Delphi and the VCL is one of the few that has made numerous transitions over the same period and remained viable. Not cutting edge but not dead. 

[Darian Miller 336]

1 hour ago, Dalija Prasnikar said:

It is not pay to see the roadmap. There is no longer a roadmap as such. But those that participate in beta testing have a bit more information about what is coming next in immediate and for some parts the release after that sooner than it is publicly available.

 

The support page states "Regular online meetings with the product team and individual company roadmap sessions"

So premium support is, in part, to pay for individual roadmap sessions.

 

[dummzeuch 1392]

44 minutes ago, Darian Miller said:

 

The support page states "Regular online meetings with the product team and individual company roadmap sessions"

So premium support is, in part, to pay for individual roadmap sessions.

Papier ist geduldig (literally: "paper is patient", possibly better: "Paper doesn't blush") or rather in this case it's the electrons or magnetic particles that are.

[Uwe Raabe 1888]

The question is now: What is an individual company roadmap session (in contrast to a plain old roadmap)?

[David Champion 46]

1 hour ago, Darian Miller said:

Regular online meetings with the product team and individual company roadmap sessions"

So premium support is, in part, to pay for individual roadmap sessions.

No!
 

That is divide and conquer. Totally irresponsible. They need to be accountable to the whole customer base. 
Public dialog. Public discussions about the direction of the products. 
Open discussions on the development of the Delphi language.

 

What they are trying to avoid is spending proper development money, playing with the balance sheet to show 

continual growth. 
 

A vocal and united community is dangerous since it would demand a better return for the subscription.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Rollo62 502]

20 hours ago, Lars Fosdal said:

Why? 

 

What are the odds that someone would add another license for Delphi at Black Friday, Week, Month,  Xmas time,  insert price reduction opportunity here?

I think that is a very old and well known marketing principle: You can grow your business fast and easy by selling new products to existing customers, instead of trying to find new customers.

This is why I can understand that well, although I find the mass of spamming quite annoying at the same time.

[PeaShooter_OMO 10]

No Delphi united front/community exists and nobody will be able to sway Embarcadero's thinking.

 

I don't think Embarcadero cares about its customers because I suspect there are too many customers that might be sort of "locked in" and renewing subscriptions all the time. Until that figure goes down drastically Embarcadero will just continue on its merry way. I also believe that if their income falls dramatically they will just try to flog the product line off to some other entity and we will have a repeat.

 

Eroding foundation with clutter on top.

[Lars Fosdal 1732]

On 12/21/2022 at 7:53 AM, Rollo62 said:

You can grow your business fast and easy by selling new products to existing customers

Except they are not new products (I've opted out from everything but RAD Studio).  

[Achim Kalwa 52]

On 12/16/2022 at 10:41 PM, Uwe Raabe said:

It has been for a long time that selected beta testers (like f.i. all MVPs and Tech Partners) are invited early to a beta cycle, while users with an active (normal) Update Subscription are invited at a later stage (so they actually are already open to any willing subscriber). Now it seems that having a Premium Update Subscription puts you into the first group, too. Does not look like a big change to the previous system to me. May be they want to put more value into the Premium part, which isn't a bad thing. Nothing is taken away from anyone.

Don't panic; Uwe is right.

I have reliable information that users with normal Update Subscription will also be invited to the beta test, but only a few days/weeks later.

 

Merry Christmas to you all.

[Clément 145]

Hi. I received this email yesterday

 

" We are pleased to send to RAD Studio customers on Update Subscription this invite to join the beta program for Embarcadero’s next major release of Delphi, C++Builder, and RAD Studio, codenamed Malawi. This invitation is for all Update Subscription customers (after an initial beta invite limited to Premium Update Subscription customers only). This invite is personal and cannot be shared with other developers without an active Update Subscription. "

 

Merry Christmas