Smalltalk with James Robertson

awesome. at least I know which Smalltalk I *won't* be using for my next billion-dollar startup :)

Don't make a fuss. Problems arise when you don't expect them :-( (otherwise they wouldn't exist...)

Yet the problems will be resolved. Hopefully soon

I'm not familiar with the ins and outs of the Smalltalk business, but it seems that it is past due for the vendors to move to a value-added business model. The VM/basic image (library) should be free and act as a platform for products that are worthy of revenue generation or come from an open community.

I've become more optimistic about Smalltalk's future with Pharo and the direction Gemstone seems to be taking. And i think VisualAge would flourish if Cincom would move to the model I present IMO.

so, what you are saying is that development and maintenance of robust, performant and powerful base technology has no value and the people involved should offer their labour for free?

Pharo and Squeak are already free, and have a fast VM available. As I've said many times, no one is entitled to a business model. Cincom thinks it is, and it will be sadly surprised by how well that plays out over time.

I *think* this is the first comment I've made on the new blow.

This pertains to the business model side of things, not the download availability. I trade money for time and reliability. That's important to me in how I see doing business, but it's important for everyone to recognize that not all customers have the same needs. In today's tight-money world, trading time for money is very common.

Troy - very true. I pay more (not a ton, but not completely trivial, either) to take direct flights to and from my new gig in Dallas. Why? I have limited time back home now, and that's worth more to me than the extra amount for the direct flights.

Or put another way, the savings to take connecting flights aren't large enough to make them worth my while.

why am I no longer able to post a comment??

it seems to work. Is there a size limit?

in short: I think our engineers and all others involved are doing a valueable job. And I think "zero" is not a fair price. I you think otherwise I congratulate your employers ;-)

There's no size limit, but the spam checker is fairly aggressive. I don't think zero is the right price. At the same time, not sharing information with people (as to why downloads are offline) and making it really, really hard to buy the products are dumb ideas.

Right now, no one knows why downloads are offline. In the absence of information, people speculate - and much of that speculation centers around things that make the company look bad.

How that helps is beyond me.