Why such an early release of 2008?

It seems to me that SW is now continually putting new users in a
position to have to learn to use the first release of SW without much
experience base to help them get up to speed. What I am saying is that
if company X decided to go with SW right now with 2008 just released
they will be getting the buggy release and will not have a user base
or even an experienced vendor base to fall back on. Why not give the
customer what MicroSoft is now doing with XP, a choice to use the last
good version or the bleeding edge new version of their OS. Would it
hurt SW that much to do this and perhaps clean up an overstock of 2007
CDs in the process?

Inquiring minds want to know.

TOP

 

Recently I approached my vendor about getting another seat of
Solidworks. At the moment there is only three of us using it, and we
hotseat during the day. Its getting to the point now where we really
need a second seat. We are still running SW2005 SP5.1 This is really
stable for us and has all the functionality we need at the moment.
There are perhaps some new sheetmetal tools that would be nice to have
in 2008, but we can survive without them.

So anyway the response from my vendor was that we would have to
upgrade. We haven't been subscribing, so they want to charge us a
fine to bring us up to date, then charge for the additional seat. Then
keep us on subscription.

seems excellent. However from a customer satisfaction point of view
it is probably the quickest and most effective way to ensure that
existing customers will come to hate the company with a major
passion. I think this is because generally people like using
Solidworks. And don't like being forced to do things they don't
want. Subscription seems like a waste of time to me. In the past, I
hardly ever spoke to my vendor about problems. They were always too
slow in providing answers. The knowledge base on this newsgroup was
all I ever really needed. The only thing it was good for were service
packs. However I don't think you should have to pay for these anyway.

I feel like the kid in the playground who the bully has taken my
lunch, put worms in it, then made me eat it.

 

Buy it from a different vendor, and dont' tell them you've already got a
seat. The other vendor will be happy for the bluebird, even without the
subscription. SW resellers are arrogant enough to think they can get
away with that kind of shit.

Daisy.

 

well you know the answers to that already...

confused goals and lack of reality testing
locked into a short unrealistic development cycle
playing out marketing fantasy battles with their competitors
having a dependant VAR network
pursuing profit and growth over quality
managerial arrogance and 'slave to the dollar' 'yes man' 'recipe for
success' thinking
fear of change - comfort zone - stale thinking
indifference from the majority of users - who as employees don't really
care.
lip service to customer relations and consultation because as professionals
they know better and you are a nuisance to their plan
your role is to buy early and patch often because you are a CAD jockey and
nothing else.

;o)

 

Please do not hate me for being somewhat satisfied with 2008...
I rolled out 2008 to all computers yesterday and so far, only one of
us has had breakdowns (6 users, 4 seats, 1-2 breakdowns). Otherwise I
am generally impressed, but then again, we upgraded from 2006 so of
course we notice improvements on the bells and whistles side (and
minor but very practical ones on functionality).

Must admit, I have to agree though, it seems the downloadable version
from SolidWorks homepage lacks some spit and polish (cosmosfloworks
installation fails).

 

I couldn't care less about you )

 

You can purchase a standalone SW2008 seat and get the Reg Codes to run
SW2005. You don't need to update your existing seat as long as it is
a standalone seat.

OTOH, you can't add seats to a SW2005 network license. You can only
add seats to an SNL that is current (now SW2008). You could still
run SW2005 if you wanted to, but the license must be for the current
release.

Similarly, you can only upgrade licenses (to SW Office Prof, Premium,
etc.) if the license is at the current release.