Re[5]: The Bat! 4.0
Hello Gleason, Sunday, October 14, 2007, 5:59:25 PM, you wrote: GP> I remember a techie friend in the early days of Firebird saying that GP> it was superior because it introduced tabs. He didn't seem to think GP> that Netscape had tabs. Never heard of Opera. So what was the GP> secret? How did Moz get noticed? The thing about FF was that it offered improvements over IE in the areas of functionality, but more importantly, security. That made it very attractive to the geek community. They picked up in it early. When they went to help out their tech-challenged friends who had gotten 'clobbered' by some 'problem' in IE, they would tell them to use this here program. Then the tech journals picked up on it ... and then the main stream press got wind ... etc. I don't know that the same tactic will work here. For one thing, there are a lot of mail clients out there. When FF came out there were just a couple out there. Look at all the mail clients and some of them are quite functional. The other problem is that the 'benefits' are not as 'clear' in this situation. For example, I cannot use TB for MSN now that MS has changed the authentication (yet again ). -- Best regards, MikeDmailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Using The Bat! v3.99.25 on Windows XP 5.1 Build 2600 Service Pack 2 Current beta is (none) | 'Using TBBETA' information: http://www.silverstones.com/thebat/TBUDLInfo.html
Re[5]: The Bat! 4.0
Hello Gleason, Sunday, October 14, 2007, 4:59:25 PM, you scribbled: GP> I remember a techie friend in the early days of Firebird saying that GP> it was superior because it introduced tabs. He didn't seem to think GP> that Netscape had tabs. Never heard of Opera. So what was the GP> secret? How did Moz get noticed? Marketing, ok, Moz calls it evangelism. I remember when Moz plunked down $130K for a full page advert in the Wall Street Journal. That and some of the devs had contributed techie articles espousing the virtues of Firefox over IE in the lead-up to the advert and official FF release. Of course you can purchase shirts, hats and cups plastered with getfirefox.com. They had a high profile, commercial marketing strategy combined with enlisting the user in a grass roots campaign. Very effective I think. While they haven't and won't catch IE, it enough that they left Opera in the dust. If you believe stats, Opera's market share has remained unchanged since 2004, but FF is inching up slowly. RITLabs could use a marketing expert to define it's products, shape an intended user base and sell the product. Right now it seems that TB! is used by those who are referred by a current user or bumble into it on a Google search. And they seem content with that for some reason. -- Regards, Mike TheBat! 3.99.25 on Windows Vista Current beta is (none) | 'Using TBBETA' information: http://www.silverstones.com/thebat/TBUDLInfo.html
Re[5]: The Bat! 4.0
Hello Paul, Saturday, October 13, 2007, 12:22:57 PM, you wrote: > 10/13/2007 6:56 AM > Hi Xav, > On 10/13/2007 Xav wrote: X>> Anyone of any type wants or should want a programme that "just works". > ALL software has some type of limitations, even SecondCopy and > Irfanview, two of the best written programs of all time. It is our > responsibility to recognize it and set up our customers to work within > the limitations instead of exposing them to our prejudices. Learning > to work with "what is" is a most valuable position to take in life. Not if there is a better alternative, in your case that being not upgrading to later versions. X>> To not consider your customers costs in using your product comes under X>> the heading of "commercial suicide". > My customers have been using TB since 1999. Many of them are still > using v. 2.12 because it provides all their needs. I only expose my > customers to versions that suit their needs. I also do not use > versions with bugs that negatively affect them. I keep copies of > several versions' installation files. Most of these people were OE or > Outlook users. None have ever asked to go back. All of this is _my_ > responsibility, not Ritlabs, or any other publisher. Then you are fortunate in being able to influence your customers so much. > It is your responsibility to find the best combination of features and > functionality for your customers and it is your responsibility to > acknowledge the limitations and learn to work within them. We are at cross-purposes. If a company produces a product that requires too much support, it will lose out - customers (whether they be the IT department or end users) will go elsewhere. In your case this has been accomplished by not upgrading to later versions. > BTW, this > is my 20th year as a consultant and database application developer. > Some of my customers are using a DOS database application in Win98SE > because that is what works best for them. It is absurd to force them > to "upgrade" to something that will do less for them! I fully agree with you. > I recently built > a Win2K machine for a new customer who had purchased a Vista machine > prior to contacting me. They thank me over and over and I received > additional customer referrals from them because of it. Out of curiosity - why not XP? > All of my business is received by word of mouth from a satisfied customer > and I > have more than I want. Nice to hear that. -- Best regards, Xav Current beta is 3.99.24 | 'Using TBBETA' information: http://www.silverstones.com/thebat/TBUDLInfo.html
Re[5]: The Bat! 4.0
Paul, > It is your responsibility to find the best combination of features and > functionality for your customers and it is your responsibility to > acknowledge the limitations and learn to work within them. BTW, this > is my 20th year as a consultant and database application developer. > Some of my customers are using a DOS database application in Win98SE > because that is what works best for them. It is absurd to force them > to "upgrade" to something that will do less for them! I recently built > a Win2K machine for a new customer who had purchased a Vista machine > prior to contacting me. They thank me over and over and I received > additional customer referrals from them because of it. All of my > business is received by word of mouth from a satisfied customer and I > have more than I want. And that was all well said. Peace to all deceased horses. -- Gleason Using 3.99.24 on Windows XP, 5.1, Build 2600. IMAP email provider is Fastmail, which uses Cyrus server software. Current beta is 3.99.24 | 'Using TBBETA' information: http://www.silverstones.com/thebat/TBUDLInfo.html
Re[5]: The Bat! 4.0
>>TB is the pick, because it is the most well developed Imap >>implementation with the most configurable interface, with tolerable html >>in email display. It is true that Mulberry's Imap is more complete, but >>I don't find it more trouble free. > TheBat!'s IMAP handling is crude and unpredictable. I would never trust > it in a production environment. The HTML display is not tolerable until > we have the choice to display images. Crude and unpredictable. That would be Pocomail and Eudora. > Thunderbird is what I chose to put my company on. The IMAP > implementation is great. It is not complete, but average users won't > notice unless they want to drag out the RFC :). At least I can save my > sent mail to my IMAP sent items box, I can rely on the counters, I can > leave it on as long as I want and it won't hang, I can filter my account Yes, if static message index columns, inability to set font sizes, and many other things is good enough, Thunderbird is good enough. > and my number one pet peeve. I can mark items as deleted and they > don't disappear from the inbox (when we used TB! this was the number one > trouble call, accidental deletion) with Thunderbird, it is just lined > through, the user can right click and undelete, no more hysterical > calls. undelete is possible in TheBat!, it just isn't intuitive to the > average user, gone is gone to them. Interesting. One of the things I positively didn't like about Mulberry was the necessity to delete messages twice. If I delete it, I want it to be gone. All gone. POP users have survived a long time without needing to deleting messages twice, why does this become necessary for Imap users? -- Gleason Using 3.99.24 on Windows XP, 5.1, Build 2600. IMAP email provider is Fastmail, which uses Cyrus server software. Current beta is 3.99.24 | 'Using TBBETA' information: http://www.silverstones.com/thebat/TBUDLInfo.html
