- 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.
I believe they will re-release most(if not all) existing DBTech products for vB5.
about the prices:
Upgrade: You may upgrade your existing vB3/4 license to a vB5 license for 25% of the cost of a new license. For most mods this will be in the $10-20 range. You will no longer be able to run the product on a vB3/4 site. This is necessary to cover the cost of porting the modification (many mods will require extensive rewriting) as well as the extra support load.

Discount License: You may purchase a new vB5 license of any mod you currently own a vB3/4 version of for 50% off. This allows you to use the mod on a vB3/4 site AND a vB5 site at the same time should you so wish.

New Licenses: New licenses purchased will be either vB3/4 or vB5 only. There are no plans to change the pricing at the moment, the vB5 versions will cost the same as the existing vB3/4 versions.
 
Thanks for this. But:

1. The pricing information you have supplied only relates to upgrade to VB5 of those DBTech mods which DBTech will indeed upgrade to VB5. Assuming that one of my own numerous Lifetime License owned mods is not eventually upgraded to VB5 - what would happen to that specific VB4 mod I own? It would then become defunct right? So, I would lose a mod totally - simply because DBTech haven't upgraded that specific mod to VB5?
What solution would DBTech give me in this scenario?
(The concern here obviously is that that specific VB4 DBTech mod which may be playing a good part in the growth of my website may no longer be usable indefinitely?)

2. And, 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?

Regards,

O.H.
 
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.

1) We don't have a concrete policy yet, but yes i'd imagine so.

2) We don't plan to make our vB4 products end of life until vb6 is stable, not vB5.

3) We plan on porting the mods we have that are portable for vB5 (The backend of vB5 currently makes some mods impossible) and/or those that would be useful on vB5 (e.g not replicating functionality)

4) The pricing will be as follows:

Now that #vB5 Connect is officially on sale we have finalized our pricing structure regarding our modifications on vB5 as they are ported:

Upgrade: You may upgrade your existing vB3/4 license to a vB5 license for 25% of the cost of a new license. For most mods this will be in the $10-20 range. You will no longer be able to run the product on a vB3/4 site. This is necessary to cover the cost of porting the modification (many mods will require extensive rewriting) as well as the extra support load.

Discount License: You may purchase a new vB5 license of any mod you currently own a vB3/4 version of for 50% off. This allows you to use the mod on a vB3/4 site AND a vB5 site at the same time should you so wish.

New Licenses: New licenses purchased will be either vB3/4 or vB5 only. There are no plans to change the pricing at the moment, the vB5 versions will cost the same as the existing vB3/4 versions.

I can't say for sure how long this pricing will remain, as always things are subject to change, but at the moment there are no plans to change it.
 
One point I'd like to make on the phrasing of "lifetime". The word used in the way Cosmic has used it, is the way it's normally used when talking about products. It's the product lifetime, not your lifetime. I remember when I was about 10 years old, my dad won a "lifetime" supply of camera film. That was 30 years ago, guess what? He's not getting any film now. ;) The reason, it was the lifetime of the product and as you know a camera that uses film is pretty much non-existent these days and that type of film and camera aren't even produced anymore. To expect the company to continue to supply my dad with film 30 years later for a product that doesn't even exist any longer is a bit much to expect. Should they be supplying him with new SD cards for the new cameras? Nope! It's pretty much the same with software and how Cosmic has done things is normal and right on the money.

Please understand, I'm only saying this to try and put some real world perspective on things and don't mean this in a negative way. =)
 
The main (and the only) issue was that, once VB6 is stable ansd I decide not to upgrade, you may decide at that time not to upgrade any of your current VB4 mods to fit in with VB6 - this would obviously mean that all my current lifetime VB4 licences will be defunct and, in short, I would have to re-do my whole website again, putting in all new VB6 DBtech mods... this was the concern, nothing else.

But, as you have said that you will certainly do most, if not all current VB4 mods for VB5 & VB6, it should be ok... as far as your upgrade pricing for upgrade to VB5 is concerned, for existing customers, this is reasonable.

So, in short, all I would say at this stage is that it would be great if you do make the appropriate versions of at least most of your current VB4 mods for VB5 & VB6.

I hope you understand.

Regards.
 
Just to add one more thing, that makes my life harder.

I bought dating mod. And, I really don't know if mod will be supported. I hoped that DBTech would made dating mod, but it considers it too niche. Ok, so I need to be on vB4.2 (and maybe newer versions of vB4 will work, but maybe not). So, after years, there will be newer versions of PHP. Today there's PHP5.4 and vB doesn't work with it. So, I'll need to find or install server with PHP5.3 just to run my site.

My point? Having site and software is a big problem and planing so far in advance as 10 years time is really too long, let alone 20 or 30 years. Just to be able to sleep, I try not to think of all problems that will arise in so long time span.
 
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