Should we really crack IBrowse 2.4???

[Nearly-Right]

by futaura on 2008/4/13 12:07:15

Just makes me wonder really. And just so that I'm clear, these thoughts have absolutely no effect on the current situation - I am fully in agreement that it needs to be sorted out asap, and for that we need Stefan.

I just wonder then, seeing that you are one of the developers, and you cannot manage to contact Stefan to resolve this problem, how long will it take for this KEYFILE/DISTRIBUTOR problem to be resolved, nevermind the dreadfully slow release of IB3.x.

There is no way for a normal IB user to contact Stefan as he does not seem to want to take e-mails from his users' questions, as their is no e-mail address publicly available for him to be asked these questions.

I, for one, am grateful to you Oliver for taking the stance where you keep us as informed as you feel you can, and it is all credit to you, it is just a pity you do not have more control over the program release/distribution at this point, and are unfortunately unable to get Stefan to do what needs to be done, for us all.

[kranich-ba]

I think there are many people like me...

left amiga years ago (slow A2000, A1200).... came back last year... now i own A4k 060 and A2k 060 + gfx

From a purely personal point of view, it amazes me that so many new IBrowse users have sprung up since IOSPIRIT stopped supporting the Amiga, given that Amiga is a supposedly dead platform with a shrinking userbase.  I wonder how many of these 30 new users never used IBrowse before 2.4?  I remember huge threads about 2.4 taking so long, and it was well publicised that 2.4 would be a free upgrade to those who bought 2.3 then (and therefore 2.2, 2.1 or 2.0), which as I've said before means that 2.4 keyfiles have effectively been on sale for 10 years (minus the HiSoft->IOSPIRIT transition period), so not only 4 months strictly speaking.

Just makes me wonder really.  And just so that I'm clear, these thoughts have absolutely no effect on the current situation - I am fully in agreement that it needs to be sorted out asap, and for that we need Stefan.

[AmiKit]

@all

Anyone shouting at IBrowse (or other) developers should read THIS , especially point 7 and 8.

[Bandis]

If we filter through all the posts there is a very clear question.

"Is IBrowse still a comercial enterprise?"

It just looks like poor planning from this side of the fence if the owner of the business left and made himself unavailable for whatever reasons.

Perhaps IBrowse developers SHOULD consider if their time and knowledge is better spent on other projects.

regards
Bandis

[TjLaZer]

This is how I see it.  I realize the situation, I read the thread on Amigaworld.net.  I guess Stephen is not avail.  And I see that iBrowse is still being developed further.  Then IMHO what they should do is offer a keyfile for iBrowse 2.4 to the Amiga Community (or at a minimum to people that had previous versions--like myself!)  That way they can take their time to sort all this out, get a distributor, locate Stephen, etc...  I know stuff happens and in this small market it will not be a fast process.  But this way there is no cracking going on, and no spreading of pirate keyfiles!!!

Just my two cents really!

[stefcep2]

Its a ludicrous situation:  purchasers are saying:"We wish to buy your product."  The seller replies:"I won't sell it to you because I refuse to spend the hour of my time that would be required for me to sell it to you". Only Amiga makes it possible.

Getting to the original question, no we shouldn't crack it, because that would be stealing, its Stefan's product.  Will it be cracked?  Of course.

[Matt_H]

@ AmiKit & thread

I'm going to quote Dave Fisher's AW post directly.

7. Work continues on IBrowse mainly with Oliver atm. If his motivation drops off due to all this crap, chances are thats the end of IBrowse simply as Stefan hardly works on it anymore anyway.

8. If Stefan doesn't reply to e-mails, or read the forums, or care if IB is currently available for sale or not, shouting at Oliver and I, and/or threatening to crack the software is hardly going to help matters.

Emphasis added.

User frustration is inevitable and understandable, but support, not threats, is better in the long run. I already suggested a way for developers to keep users interested and engaged, so it'd be nice if users might return the courtesy by not trying to hasten the demise of a program so they can get it for free. :roll:

[persia]

Yep, Amiga doesn't have a modern language to program in, have only a few hundred users and lacks operating system support for many features.  It would be real easy for Oliver to pack up his Amiga and go program in the PC or Mac world.  Heck with the packages out there he could easily write for both.

[stefcep2]

User frustration is inevitable and understandable, but support, not threats, is better in the long run. I already suggested a way for developers to keep users interested and engaged, so it'd be nice if users might return the courtesy by not trying to hasten the demise of a program so they can get it for free. :roll:

What better support can a developer, who's basically not doing it for the money, get then a user saying :"yes I like your product, I think you've done such a good job, so much so that I WANT to pay you MONEY for it"...

[Terse]

@ iBrowse guys
I can't shed any light on the US situation, but if it helps I can tell you my story.  I began looking for a NIC when I saw the iBrowse 2.4 announcement and didn't obtain one until a few months later (got outbid a few times.)  I eventually got a hydra card, but also had to shop for a tranciver.  I got one a few weeks after that.  I then went to buy iBrowse but the site had been closed for only about a week.  If you search this web site you may even be able to find a bitter rant from me about the situation.  I was out about $100 for the hardware.  I then sold the pair at a slight loss on eBay, any perhaps that person is now looking to buy iBrowse...

@A-Pex
I looked at your website a1k.org
It's pretty slick.  It's also very clear that your users are not anything like the typical Amiga users here.  I see your users are actively hacking together new hardware and banning together to complete grassroots projects.  None of that happens anywhere else.  Your fustration stems from the fact that you really are not a normal type of Amiga user. A "normal" Amiga user is a sad and slow moving animal that would rather lament for years and years about the state of things.  A normal Amiga user sees no problem with waiting 3 or 4 _YEARS_for a web site to begin selling new licenses for a dead product.
That's actually why I stick around here.  It's like watching a train wreck every day.  I can't turn away.

[a-pex]

I looked at your website a1k.org
It's pretty slick.  It's also very clear that your users are not anything like the typical Amiga users here.  I see your users are actively hacking together new hardware and banning together to complete grassroots projects.  None of that happens anywhere else.

Thank you! Our community was founden at the end of 2004 with the phoenix project. I was able to bring the nice side of amiga back to many users, users that have no frusted storys in the past (AInc/MOS/OS4 and other flamewars). ;-)

A "normal" Amiga user is a sad and slow moving animal that would rather lament for years and years about the state of things.

Then we are really no normal amiga users, but we are many! :-)

[a-pex]

futaura wrote:
given that Amiga is a supposedly dead platform with a shrinking userbase.

Old frustrated users go, new users are coming. Take a look on our community, most of this users are returners...

I wonder how many of these 30 new users never used IBrowse before 2.4?

I do not know your perspective about the community, but there are still so many people that come back, starting again their hobby because today they have the money and so on. You have just to found this people doing community work and put them in one forum and then you will have more than 30 users with need to get a keyfile.

I am fully in agreement that it needs to be sorted out asap, and for that we need Stefan.

Ok, Stefan has no time to sort out a distribution. But can you contact him and maybe make the keyfile work for him? I only want to buy some keys. I will send you a list with names and emails and the money using paypal?

[weirdami]

@TheMagicM

If there is a piece of Amiga software I want and I cant buy it, I'll use a crack, copy etc.

Is that the official word from AO moderation on this subject?

[Boot_WB]

@TheMagicM

 @TheMagicM

If there is a piece of Amiga software I want and I cant buy it, I'll use a crack, copy etc.

Is that the official word from AO moderation on this subject?

As Weirdami speaks, so speaks my nation.

[Matt_H]

@ stefcep2

Granted, the situation with IBrowse is bad, very bad, but not catastrophic. There's a demo available and there are other browsers to use in the meantime.

[Hans_]

persia wrote:
Yep, Amiga doesn't have a modern language to program in, have only a few hundred users and lacks operating system support for many features.  It would be real easy for Oliver to pack up his Amiga and go program in the PC or Mac world.  Heck with the packages out there he could easily write for both.

 :-?

Most OSes see all major development happen in C & C++, we have both of those. What particular language are you referring to?

Hans