Re: An Open Letter to Carl Bass

[Jason S]

On 03/24/14 12:07, Maurice Patel wrote: Hi Jason You can no longer purchase either Composite (Toxik) or Combustion from Autodesk as products. Toxik is available if you buy Maya or 3ds Max. Softimage will be available too but under slightly different conditions: prior version usage. [...] Hi Maurice, I knew they were not "sold" but served as examples of how it was -entirely possible- to have minimally maintained apps. (and how "not possible" was hard to beleive) And I actually did see Combustion sold in a few places such as here but I guess that would be like residual "off the shelf" leftovers.. BUT it WAS officially offered at least  *up to 2011* from it's product page. (~4 years later.. and not just to existing customers)  Also if I may, the very (very) partial reversal did make you (not reffering to "you" personally) look quite generous, yet correct me if I'm wrong, but while it now technically possible for existing customers to get more seats within that *2* years, doesn't restraining that possibility -exclusively- to the included version in the Suite, make getting more Softimage seats like ~2x the price? And saying you could now use your existing SI as long as you wished.. does it mean that previously you could prevent perpetual SI's from working or being rightfully used?..  (wow) .. well if so, thank you! (not "you" personally) for not being just *completely* .. (can't find the words.) So all the "reversal" mostly meant was the ability for people on subsciption to continue to have their SI's work at all (for 2 yrs), (if they decided to continue the with a supported software) and the ability to get more seats (included in suites only).  Man.. How *considerate*. On 03/24/14 12:07, Maurice Patel wrote: [...] The software industry is full of companies buying tech and discontinuing tech. It is not unique to Autodesk and it is not unique to large companies and it is particularly prevalent in the entertainment industry. Maurice I completely agree with you that this sort of behavior (competition elimination) can be petty widespread.  Yet the question of that widespreadness making such moves any less wrong, can be very questionable to say the least. How many people worked on SI, and what could it do that either others could not, or could not as fast or as well? and that's just the beginning of it... (have these questions been at-all asked or weighed?) Cause those are the true consequences, all in the name of saving whatever would have involved bare minimal "support"+logistics of something kept available, and/or perhaps a handful of seats becoming Maya. Thanks, J