Opinions sought - Progress Licencing

[tobyb]

My company is using some software developed in Progress. We purchased our licence for this product through the software provider. We also purchased a development licence through them as well - we are running on v9.

Because I am trying to build some additional software in Progress v10. I have hit a bit of a snag, our vendor has suggested that we cannot have v10 until they are ready to upgrade to v10. This seems a little restrictive from both them and Progress. I would like to develop and deploy business applications to my company but am now restricted to the facilities in v9.

The actual progress licence that comes with the software is directly with progress, however in practice - both in conversation with our vendor and Progress they indicate that our channel of approach for all licencing matters is with the vendor, who are currently in no position to upgrade to version 10 for at least 12 months or more. Leaving me unable to proceed with any real development for some time.

I am in no way trying to go behind anybodies back or try and not pay our way, but we have been faithfully paying maintenance for Progress which includes upgrades v9==>v10.

I have been informed that I can get an evaluation copy of progress v10, fine, but it will not allow me to install in our production environment.

Has any one else had this issue? Has it been resolved? How?

 

[joey.jeremiah]

computers are so much easier to work with then people.

just a stab in the dark, but maybe its more a question of communication then licensing, and then again maybe not. it's probably not a licensing question since your company is paying tens of thousands of dollars every year for maintenance support.


there are customers that use multiple versions, probably with a more complicated architecture but still.

there's no problem installing multiple versions on a single machine, i've got 5 versions installed on my computer.

you could get v9 and v10 versions to talk directly together, though i'm guessing it'll probably be mostly a standalone project for now ? v9 client and v10 appserver or v10 client and v9 appserver will work.


maybe start by asking the vendor why is he against writing the new project in v10 ?

maybe they're afraid it'll f' up the application and cause all kinds of problems, maintenance headaches, and maybe they have a point.

maybe they think its only because some developer watched the latest webcast and thinks he must have the latest version. hey, what's wrong with that ?.


one thing, you could do is write a thorough spec, well, you need specs anyways if its not a trivial project.

it'll help you think the project through and see if you can't write it in the current v9 or whats the tradeoffs.

and communicate your ideas why those features are so important and can't be done with the current v9 and hopefully get management to back you up.

 

[TomBascom]

You have a couple of options:

1) Convince your vendor to accelerate their timetable.

2) Obtain a second license for your other project -- you could do this as a direct customer of Progress or through your vendor.

3) If you have source and can compile it (this is very common with Progress applications although the source may be encrypted rather than clear text) then you could choose to upgrade in spite of your vendor's objections. They'll probably try to scare you (or your management) with FUD about not supporting uncertified configurations or some such thing. If their support is actually valuable to your company then those arguments may have weight. On the other hand it is entirely possible that you require little or no support from them.

Personally, I'd go for #3 if you can compile code. Upgrading is safe, effective and beneficial 99.44% of the time. If I were your vendor I'd be thrilled that you want to help me out by doing so.