At 03:03 PM 5/22/2012, you wrote:
Jerry,
We are in full agreement. In fact, we will not ship the first radio
other than to beta testers until all basic functionality that is
expected in a radio is incorporated and stable. No one will have to
pay another dime to make basic things work properly. That doesn't
meant that the software will have every feature known to man but it
will do all the basic things very well (e.g. multiple Slice
Receivers, QSK CW, SSB, AM, FM, CAT, etc.). The ground breaking new
features will come in releases after that. Sounds like you won't
care much about what comes after first one or two releases then.
73,
Gerald
...
Actually, I will probably buy whatever you sell that would be useful
or novel with my 6500 in its main HF communications modes. But I hope
to be buying new features then, not just paying to fix bugs.
Thanks for making it clear that the radio will be "ready for prime
time" before we have to purchase support.
I can't wait to see what a "ground breaking" software feature beyond
what you have already mentioned would look like in my 6500.
Jerry W4UK
On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 1:12 PM, Jerry Flanders
<<mailto:[email protected]>[email protected]> wrote:
Many of us have committed significant amounts of money to fund the
upcoming software development.
Most of us think that you will eventually deliver on the major
promises you are implying re the 6N00 series, and perhaps on the
minor ones as well.
But concerning your announced upgrade policy, please remember: As
you said, the software "is" the radio. And we are paying for a
complete, working radio. You might not have it actually completed
within 2 years.
I would, and I think most buyers would, be comforted if you
committed to delivering a truly working radio for the price we have
committed to pay. This might mean that the cutoff date for free
"software upgrades" is the date at which you deliver a relatively
bug-free and relatively full-featured product (your honest judgnent,
not mine). I am not asking for true "upgrades", only a genuinely
workable radio with at least the same software reliability and
usefulness as other Ham manufacturers provide for the initial
purchase price. If the initial version of the software is truly
finished in the first year, I probably don't need a second year, free or not.
True "upgrades" that add significant functionality or features are
not at issue here - charge/subscribe/whatever for them.
The model for responsibility for software product quality has been
well established: Microsoft charges me only when a truly new OS
version (98, XP. 7...) comes out. I don't have to pay yearly to
simply make the released version work properly - making it work was
Microsoft's responsibility from the time of initial release, and
they honor that.
If you are sure you can actually deliver a fully working, relatively
bug-free 6N00 radio within two years, you have nothing to lose in
re-stating your time-based commitment into a performance-based one.
BTW, I ordered my 6500 Sunday evening. It will be my third Flex
radio. I am still using my SDR-1000 as well as my 5000/rx2.
Jerry W4UK
At 10:52 AM 5/22/2012, Gerald Youngblood wrote:
Hi Jim,
We understand that charging for software upgrades is a business model that
has not existed before in ham radio. Other manufacturers have limited
capability for radically changing the functionality their radios through
software so it does not make sense for them to charge. Those other radios
are generally fixed function analog architectures that have only
a tiny fraction of the computational power of the FLEX-6000 series.
The software *is* the radio on the FLEX-6000 series. FlexRadio is a
software company ...
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