Howard, Thanks for your detailed reply. I had pretty much already stated everything I was going to say - and I think addressed all the points you've raied - but since you went to some effort to write so much I think you deserve some further explanatory comment, though I've probably not had time to write as much as you deserve.
> a) I see a schedule manager, but I see no indication of how > to schedule . . . > Unix servers? I thought it was a tool that runs from your > local machine > and pushes changes out to other servers. If you have specific questions about our commecial product please contact our sales team. The current release of RM is a windows only 'pull' design since all of the functions you are asking for can be performed using existing Operating System tools in linux/hpux/solaris and 'push' designs a generally unsafe to provide as 'out of the box' solutions (ie: we'd provide 'push' designed with on site consulting). > Then I'm told that the book alone is worth the price of > admission, but it covers topics that are already DONE in > our team. >From your description of your use of CVSNT and your reaction to the product literature I think we can both see it is not designed to appeal to you. However other long time users of CVSNT have already posted in this thread that they did learn stuff from the eBook when they bought it. The CVS Suite marketing material is designed for people who are familiar with using VSS. Or to put another way - the CVS Suite marketing material is designed for people who download WinCVS and say 'this is not what I want'. My goal is to add to the numbers of people people who are using good software configuration management tools - which necessitates presenting information in a new 'simpler' - 'less technical' way. > As an addendum, I wanted to list some very real problems that I would > buy CVS Suite to solve if only I knew with confidence they were even > addressed I think what you and many other 'technically advanced' users want is CM Server ie: EVS. The very first version may not look very pretty but it does support both SVN and CVSNT clients and has 'svn style' repository revision id's and we'll add to the number of supported clients (TeamSystem will be next and also to the prettyness of the GUI and the number of workflows the GUI supports. > 1) WinCVS is old and outdated. The 'Suite Studio' (previously called Workspace Manager) is our 'replacement' for WinCVS - including it's support for flat view - however if you love WinCVS then you probably wont like 'Suite Studio' and are probably best off continuing to use WinCVS. The CVS Suite version of CVSNT already has support for 'message to bug number' so that includes support for WinCVS, but we recommend using Suite Studio for things like promote and merge by bug id since we wont be adding those to WinCVS any time soon. Of course we listen to our customers - so if tomorrow 1000 people bought 1-3 copies each of CVS Suite and 400 of them wrote to the help desk all saying that WinCVS was the most important part of the Suite for them and that their 'top 5 ideas' were 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 then of course we'd listen and deliver on that in CVS Suite 2009. > Anyway that's my feedback. I love cvsnt and appreciate all the work > that has been put into it. The 'point' of our recent advertising push is all about the ability for us to continue to fund innovation in the core FOSS product and not at all about whether the CVS Suite commercial add-ons add value for you. If CVSNT is core to work that a person is paid a wage/salary/income for then I want to encourage that person to support the tool that is helping them to earn an income. Many other organisations keep innovation out of the FOSS product and spend the majority of their hours and money on marketing and innovating only in the non FOSS 'add on' tools. March Hare Software have spent more time and money every year on the core CVSNT/EVS projects than on the 'add ons' by far more than 2:1 - and yes it does show in the comprehensiveness of the 'core' product and the relative lack of comprehensiveness of the 'add ons'. Tony and I are certainly not going to walk away from CVSNT, however an option open to us is exactly what you appear to be advocating for in your e-mail: we'll start to add all these features to the 'add on commercial tools' and so that they become indispensable. However I prefer the path we've already followed, with adding changesets, and audit and access control lists and multi-site repositories to the core FOSS product so that it truly remains Free and Open Source and relying on our users to see the value in supporting the team that provide it and purchase support and the 'officially supported' versions. The features that we've added to the 'core' FOSS product are exactly the ones that you say you value the most. Now are you (and everyone else who uses CVSNT) going to encourage us to continue to put them in the 'core' or are you going to encourage us to start putting them only in 'commercial add-ons'? Regards, Arthur Barrett _______________________________________________ cvsnt mailing list cvsnt@cvsnt.org http://www.cvsnt.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/cvsnt Upgrade to CVS Suite for more features and support: http://march-hare.com/cvsnt/