Awkward reasonings?

[laplandz]

Writing this feels amazingly "awkward" to me and its subject feels like an elephant in the room type scenario, not necessarily in this forum but for our humble workshop at least.

I've been with d7II from the start, since beta and I’ve enjoyed its progress until a few months ago. Essentially my internal company "politics" has led us (as a company) to look at another rivals offering and I’ve personally discovered their product becoming "on-par", if not better than d7II with some added improvements. For instance their reporting system looks like its leaps and bounds above d7II, I’m talking VASTLY BETTER!
It’s also offering other things such as a dedicated USB bootable environment, a unique portal and various other improvements that I so wish would be included within d7II.

That being said and my true intention of writing this is...

I have read many times that d7II is still the main focus and passion, but wonder if this still needs to be true. As much as FoolishIT as a company wants this to be true, it’s becoming more apparent that CryptoPrevent has taken the flag. This is not a criticism and i believe CP's success can justify such a reaction.

What made me love d7II was how quickly updates and improvements used to come along and how involved I felt within its development as an end-user. This feeling no longer exists as suggestions are ignored, updates come along few-and-far-between and speaking honest, this forum seems more "self-help", even though additional staff have been taken on. Also the only "news" i ever receive through newsletters, etc seem to be promo stuff advertising CryptoPrevent specials or how i can buy d7II cheaper for the first year (although i'm 2-3 years in already).
This rival company doesn't have the same issues with separate focus-point software packages, their focus seems solely on what d7II represents and well, what it is. They offer free weekly webinars and are making headway into incorporating a dSS type package, although i haven't really looked into this to be fair.

I've stuck with d7II as i like(d) it, this rival company seems to be focused on what I think d7II wanted to be, granted it isn't the same and no doubt it has things that d7II doesn't, but it does have things i wished d7II did have. I've not yet trialled their software but it's starting to become more appealing, especially as I (and my business partner) feel the focus for FoolishIT has somewhat changed to "how to SELL CryptoPrevent".

I also hope, with hand on heart that Nick understands the purpose of this post, as I’m sure I’m not the only subscriber with relevant thoughts. CryptoPrevent is awesome and am sure it’s earning the monies. Its success is and however bad you think it sounds, hurting what you and us wanted in d7II. CP should never cease development and will be needed by so many Joe-Public-end-users that it will, if it hasn’t already become more successful than d7II and that’s why it deserves to be the flagship.


I will end this post with two carefully worded questions

Code: Select all

1. Does FoolishIT believe d7II has the focus it deserves?
  &
2. If not already, why not direct all "efforts" to CryptoPrevent?

BOTH OF THESE QUESTIONS ARE ANSWERED IN VMHS LINK BELOW :)

[vmhs]

I kind of agree with the gist of this post, especially the "newsletter" portion.

https://www.foolishit.com/2015/05/a-note-for-our-customers-in-the-professional-it-community-and-pc-repair-industry/ is a post I only just found on their website which may explain some of your questions.

[laplandz]

Wow, feel a bit silly now

Wish i'd read that first as it pretty much sums it all up, that post/explanation would have made a good newsletter

[vmhs]

Wow, feel a bit silly now

Wish i'd read that first as it pretty much sums it all up, that post/explanation would have made a good newsletter

I know right? for weeks I was thinking same thing, then I thought - let me visit public web site.

I think this should have been replicated here for those that already bought and dont go to main website.

[Loopey]

I've been using D7 since the very early "donation days", before Nick made it a commercial product, and just wanted to throw in my .02 on this. While I will admit that the recent "slow down" has been a bit discouraging, I'm not really very concerned that D7II will no longer be developed in the future. IMHO, the software has seen incredible development and growth over the years, and the product we enjoy now is 100 times better that the product I began using in the start. Anyone who has been around for some time knows that up until recently, we have seen an almost constant stream of bug fixes, new features, and new options. I personally cannot think of any other software I've used that could even come close to matching the pace of development we have gotten used to. And now that things are suddenly slowing down, were all a little bit worried. But I really thing that the link vmhs posted does a very good job of explaining what is going on. I'd be willing to bet that as soon as the new CryptoPrevent version goes out, we will see D7II development resume at the pace it has been for the last few years.

As far as that other product that was mentioned.....I seem to recall reading that they are actually using a skinned version of D7 (not D7II) to handle at least some of their functionality. I think it was a newsletter or blog post right before D7II was released, they had paid to use/change/resell D7 as part of their product. I'm a little impressed by the features they've added, but I haven't see anything that is worth paying a much higher rate to use something built on an older version of D7. And I'm personally quite confident that many of those new features are things we'll see in future development of D7II.

[laplandz]

From reading the poorly placed posts (as in on the main public site, not where many d7ii subscribers visit frequently i'd imagine), Nick does a good job of explaining it pretty well and it also reads like an honest statement. He admits that CryptoPrevent users outway the d7ii subscribers and to be fair, of course it does and so it should.

I'm just hoping his words concerning d7ii development run true, the other product is making improvements and is showing some promise to being a proper competitor to d7ii which is what made me make my original post. It's worth mentioning that after reading my post, it sounds somewhat confrontational which wasn't my original intention. I wasn't suggesting if things don't improve i'd stop subscribing, although as we all surely agree, that is ultimately the natural route.

I chose the title "Awkward reasonings?" for a few... well, reasons. mainly, i don't understand why FoolishIT from a monetary perspective would keep d7ii going with the success of CryptoPrevent, basically the logistics seem "complicated" and as a small company it's only natural to go where the money is.
Also I have no problem if Nick wrote a post stating he could no longer support d7ii and would no longer update it, it's the "knowing" part that is most important to me and i can accept it is, what it is, but would at least be able to make plans, not judgements.

From a personal perspective, d7ii has become an integral part of our company, it does save time, it does keep everything in one place, i would hate not having it and it is awesome. But the tech version of awesome, rather sadly has a short shelf life unless improved upon, and in my opinion, d7ii has taken hit in this department recently.

[xide]

I've followed this post for about a week now.....so I'll be the martyr....

In short I know Nick has a lot going on right now, which he is currently getting in order but once the dust settles he plans to focus 100% on development on d7ii, while the rest of his staff work on the other projects/departments. I don't want to speak for him more than that though, this is just some of what he has told me.

I understand the lack of updates, there aren't any major bugs that I have heard of that makes d7ii unusable or even any really bad bugs that render it useless, I think it's already a solid tool. It does everything I need it to do except dispense large amounts of caffeine and make me food. I mean I wouldn't mind getting a few surprise features and additions those are always welcomed and appreciated greatly, However I'm patient I just look back on what I was using 5+ years ago. I'm fine the way it is for now, and I know Nick will get back to working on more development for it as soon/when he can. I'm sure at that time he will most likely surprise us with all sorts updates, features, tools, functions, etc. I'm sure he has some new ideas/plans for d7ii brewing in his mind. As i'm sure if you guys had one product that was selling so fast and keeping you so busy, you'd neglect other things until you got that under control. Not to mention, who would say no to a new stream of revenue? So I haven't lost faith yet. Surely there plenty of software out that hasn't released new updates nearly as much as Nick has in the past. I'm sure once things get situated we will see him updating much like before.

As for the "other" tool, does it end with "ru"? As I recall that did use the original d7 in it, I remember being a beta tester for it too....I hope it has improved since those days with that sort of price tag they have. I would be a liar if I didn't say I was curious on how it performs, pros/cons and it's very pretty and shiny too (layout and reports). I'm sure if I owned a Lamborghini I would be curious about the Ferrari down the street too.

[laplandz]

Xide, we're completely on the same page and i agree, d7ii as it stands is most definitely usable and also believe, deep down, the regulars here hold a sense of loyalty due to the way d7ii has improved so far, but....

I've been in this industry for half my life now and i've learnt that end-users will mostly lie, they'll always want more for free and they'll want it the same afternoon. The cruel truth is however, i'm an end-user of d7ii except i don't need to tell lies. I love d7ii, it has become integrated into our workshop so much that even machines that are D.O.A. or B.E.R. still have a report made for it through an admin machine.
A problem for me, with d7ii is, it was being updated regularly, than not at all which made me naturally think the worse than with my 8yr daughter's attitude of "i'll click it, i'll click it!", i've purchased CP for my own home pc's. but... I now consider myself an end-user of d7ii and CP and the truth is, i feel safer with the development of CP than d7ii which kinda feels backwards for me at least.

I'm sure Nick and party are reading this post but biting tongue's (oddly, i thank 'em for this), it should however, be understood that telling the flaws, concerns and "truths" pointed out by friends are intended for "positive" reasons.

[gurusonwheels]

100% agree with laplandz

[xide]

Luckily for users we do have a good group of regulars on here that can typically help users with problems they may have (as long as its not a bug in the software) and as long as people like xander don't try to make programs do what they're not intended for

Xide, we're completely on the same page and i agree, d7ii as it stands is most definitely usable and also believe, deep down, the regulars here hold a sense of loyalty due to the way d7ii has improved so far, but....

I've been in this industry for half my life now and i've learnt that end-users will mostly lie, they'll always want more for free and they'll want it the same afternoon. The cruel truth is however, i'm an end-user of d7ii except i don't need to tell lies. I love d7ii, it has become integrated into our workshop so much that even machines that are D.O.A. or B.E.R. still have a report made for it through an admin machine.

wait....so when my clients say "i don't download or click on anything" it's a lie?!. Sad truth is, and i'm scared for the future development to admit this, but I was just so happy when I got d7 4.x 3 years ago, it did all I needed...then it just kept getting better and better, now we're up to d7ii 3.x and its like a whole new beast than before, every time we get an update I think that it can't get any better, then I get proven wrong. Even new features that I saw as useless and figured i'd never use I find myself using daily. I actually went back to my old d7 last month and realized how far d7ii has come in comparison. I had to go back to d7 and use it for about a month due to financial issues and it was clearly night and day...I consider that "roughing it" and on the border of torture. I guess my point was that I was happy with a mediocre product 3 years ago when I found d7, now after being spoiled with d7ii I could never go back, and as long as it works i'm happy.

Thank you kindly for that idea about creating the report for DOA machines from an Admin pc, no idea why I never thought of that.