overhere

Customer
Hello,

There does not seem to be any mentioning of VB5 on this forum - I have almost got my VB4 website ready for launch but, I have just found out that VB5 is about to be released. The question is if I upgrade to VB5 will the numerous DBTech I have purchased and integrated into my VB4 website automatically continue to work fully and properly once I switch to VB5?

Surely I will not be obliged to buy each already purchased mod again in the form of the VB5 version? What is the procedure in this regard?

Or, will you automatically upgrade each mod to work with VB5 and so do I then just need to re-integrate the VB5 version of each mod? If not please specify costs...

Thank you,

O.H.
 
There has,
Don't know the link, but you should take a look at the latest Dev Blog here


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Oh, I see - that looks pretty fair from DBTech's side. But, how soon will DBTech be upgrading this forum to VB5?

And, will you also be releasing any VB5 compatible skins/themes?

Thanks,

O.H.
 
We likely won't update DBTech to vB5 until it becomes our primary development platform - probably a year + away from that.

We will likely launch a secondary site to demonstrate the vB5 mods when vB5 becomes more stable however.

I'd imagine we will eventually release some vB5 skins/themes once our skinner has had a chance to get used to it :)
 
You saw how long it took before we were comfortable enough with our presentation to upgrade to 4.2.0... I think that should give you a hint regarding our upgrade times to vB5 :)

In other words, we won't upgrade to vB5 until it's become our primary development platform and vB4 is what vB3 is currently.
 
Thanks for this. Also, for those of your customers who will continue to stick to VB4 indefinitely, will you continue to both supply & upgrade new VB4 mods and continue to upgrade all existing VB4 mods?

Basically, since I have purchased numerous DBTech mods for VB4, can I be assured that you will continue to upgrade all my mods?

Regards,

O.H.
 
Yes we will continue to support vB4 mods that we have now, and I am sure offer new mods as well when they are made.
 
Thanks for this. Also, for those of your customers who will continue to stick to VB4 indefinitely, will you continue to both supply & upgrade new VB4 mods and continue to upgrade all existing VB4 mods?
We obviously cannot promise to keep supporting vB4 indefinitely - just like we can't say the same for vB3, but we see no reason to stop supporting vB4 any time soon :)

It'll be several years at the least.
 
I see. But, whilst several years is a good time frame, what I mean to ask is that say after 5 years or so you stop making VB4 mods. In this scenario, taking into account that I have 'Lifetime Licenses' for each of my numerous DBTech mods, will you continue to provide upgrades, fixes and newer versions for my existing VB4 mods which I will of course continue to own after the time you stop making new VB4 mods?

And, are you still supplying mods/support for VB3?

Thanks,

O.H.
 
I see. But, whilst several years is a good time frame, what I mean to ask is that say after 5 years or so you stop making VB4 mods. In this scenario, taking into account that I have 'Lifetime Licenses' for each of my numerous DBTech mods, will you continue to provide upgrades, fixes and newer versions for my existing VB4 mods which I will of course continue to own after the time you stop making new VB4 mods?

And, are you still supplying mods/support for VB3?

Thanks,

O.H.

We will not be producing/updating our vB4 mods for all of eternity - it is likely we will stop updating them some time after vB4 is no longer supported by Internet Brands. If i was to hazard a guess I would say we will stop making new versions for our vB4 mods sometime after vB6 is released :).

Several of our mods are still available for vB3 and we will continue supporting and updating our vB3 work until vB5 is established as the most popular vB platform (I would hazard a guess that this will take 18-24 months).
 
To expand upon what Cosmic said as far as the technical side:

vB3, vB4 and vB5 are vastly different when it comes to both PHP and HTML. For instance, vBulletin 3 does not have a "navigation manager" - vB4 does. vB5 reverts to not having a navigation manager but creates their navbar in an entirely different way from vB3.

That's 3 different sets of code / HTML, and several hours of work / test, just for something as simple as a link in your navbar.

Multiply that several times for every other part of the mod. As you can see, the work load increases exponentially.
 
So what is the benefit of buying a lifetime license? "Receives Updates For: Lifetime" - what's the purpose of this then?
I mean lets take what you say that you may stop making new versions of VB4 mods after VB6 is out. This, I assume means that you will no longer release fixes and newer versions of any VB4 mods.
Then, what would be the use of all of my VB4 mods' Lifetime Licenses, i.e. "Receives Updates For: Lifetime"? How would my Lifetime Licenses work in this scenario?
Thanks,
O.H.
 
So what is the benefit of buying a lifetime license? "Receives Updates For: Lifetime" - what's the purpose of this then?
I mean lets take what you say that you may stop making new versions of VB4 mods after VB6 is out. This, I assume means that you will no longer release fixes and newer versions of any VB4 mods.
Then, what would be the use of all of my VB4 mods' Lifetime Licenses, i.e. "Receives Updates For: Lifetime"? How would my Lifetime Licenses work in this scenario?
Thanks,
O.H.

The lifetime licenses would still apply for the lifetime of the product. Much like how there were lifetime licenses of vb2/3 from vbulletin but they are no longer being updated.

The benefit to a lifetime license is that you receive several years of updates for less than the price of 2 yearly licenses :)
 
Hmmmmmmm .... in my view you should re-phrase 'Lifetime License' to a more accurate term which actually relects what you said; a term like 'License for an unspecified period of time' - not a 'Lifetime License'! I mean how is one supposed to differentiate between, as you put it "the lifetime of the product" as opposed to receiving support indefinitely?

Generally a 'Lifetime License' implies exactly that - that updates and fixes will be supplied on an un-ending basis, i.e. indefinitely, - there is no point is buying a 'Lifetime License' if this is not the case.

Put it this way, assume that a customer of yours like me does not want to switch over to VB5 (as many forum owners definitely will not switch over to VB5), the eventual drying up of 'Lifetime' cures for VB4 mods would mean that VB4 owners using VB4 DBTech mods would be forced to switch over to VB5!

Of course, you can stop releasing newer versions but fixes and cures should continually be on the table for all Lifetime License holders for each such mod they hold.

Regards,

O.H.
 
And can you please tell me one thing so I can clear my head - I'll be as straight forward as I can. As an example, assuming I do not switch over to VB5 after the future point in time when you completely stop making and giving fixes etc. for all DBTech vb4 mods, and then lets assume that one of my VB4 DBTech mods malfunctions and has bugs etc. So, in this scenario what would need to be done to obtain a fix from DBTech?

At this point, would you simply supply the fix on a customer by customer basis or would you simply release the fix and/or upgraded version of the problem VB4 DBTech mod for general use by all DBTech VB4 customers who are using that mod?

Thanks,

O.H.
 
The phrase lifetime license refers to the lifetime of the product - you will receive updates for as long as there are updates made for the product. This is standard terminology for software - I don't think people expect us to support our products for 70 years which is what would be implied if you were to follow your definition of lifetime. I don't know of any company in the world that offers that, and we're not the first.

If we were to support the mods forever lifetime licenses would have to be 3 or 4 times the price they are now. vBulletin provides support for their products for a certain amount of time, then make them End of Life after which they no longer provide new versions. We support our modifications for longer than vBulletin support their forum versions.

Regarding bugfixes etc, they would be handled on a case by case basis, but if they were done they would likely be released to all customers.
 
Ok, I see where you are coming from but:

- In relation to your 'case by case' VB4 per mod fixes in the future etc, once VB4 mods are phased out by DBTech, I hope will always be reasonably priced? Right?

- To recap, will you continue to upgrade and supply fixes for all your current VB4 mods for say at least another 2 + years? Right? Or, do you have an accurate time frame, after VB5 stabilises, after which you will retire all your VB4 mods?

- And, will you eventually re-release all the existing DBTech mods for VB5 or will you release only additional, new mods for VB5?

If you re-release all existing DBTech VB4 mods for VB5, and I upgrade to VB5, will you then charge new purchase prices for the new VB5 mods you re-release or, for customers like me, will you give a discount as customers like me have already purchased numerous DBTech mods for VB4?

Thanks,

O.H.
 
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