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?
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.
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.
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).
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.
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