[iwar] [fc:Software.Limits.-.Riding.into.the.sunset]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-12-14 16:23:09
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From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
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Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2001 16:23:09 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [iwar] [fc:Software.Limits.-.Riding.into.the.sunset]
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The Gripe Line 
Ed Foster 
    

    Riding into the sunset

PERHAPS NOTHING IS more beautiful and relaxing than contemplating a sunset
... unless you're beholding one of the quick and brutal "sunset" policies
software publishers have recently instituted to kill off older versions of
their products.

Those who sell software have always tried to make upgrading a necessity, of
course, but lately some are taking more drastic measures. One reader found
this out when a salesman from a Web retailer phoned him recently to drum up
business. "This guy was very insistent that if we did not buy renewals we
would be sued [because] our current licenses would be expiring after two
years," the reader says. "When I said I'd never seen an expiration date on
PC software other than some leased engineering programs, he said all
software has to be renewed, at which point I hung up on him before I started
swearing."

Of course, it's not true that all software licenses have to be renewed, at
least not yet. But with Microsoft requiring "product activation" for Windows
XP and pushing corporate customers toward subscription licensing plans, the
trend is clear.

In early October, the Gripe Line began getting complaints about the
retirement plans Network Associates had in mind for VirusScan and other
McAfee anti-virus products. The readers, most of whom were using product
versions that were two to three years old, had encountered problems after
downloading the latest virus signature update file from McAfee. In looking
for answers, they were directed to a Web page detailing end-of-support and
end-of-life timetables for McAfee products and the anti-virus engines on
which they are based. This led to the readers murmuring suspicions about the
update files being used as a way of forcing them to upgrade.

Network Associates officials say they have been notifying both corporate and
retail customers for the past six months about their end-of-life plans for
older products. The swift pace of change in anti-virus technology means
older products have to be phased out regularly. "The goal is to provide our
customers with better protection, not to get them to spend a few more
dollars," says Vincent Gullotto, director of McAfee's anti-virus lab.

Gullotto adds that McAfee will support each new anti-virus engine for at
least one year. Users can keep using unsupported versions, but updates may
not work as they won't be tested with the older engines.

I can accept that anti-virus software publishers have good reasons for
retiring their older technology. It's harder to be sympathetic in some other
areas, though. One reader was upset that a version of PartitionMagic he had
purchased a little more than a year ago had been taken off PowerQuest's list
of supported products. In asking how to get PartitionMagic 5.01 to work on
Windows 2000, he received a reply from PowerQuest that his product was out
of its "support life cycle" and would no longer be supported. The surprise
was not that he couldn't get complimentary support, but that he could not
even pay for help with a product he'd purchased just 15 months before.

In studying PowerQuest's Web site, I could see his experience might not be
unusual, as all support ceases for a PowerQuest product one year after the
next release is introduced. Because the company tends to bring out a new
release of most of its products at least once a year and often even faster,
the support clock starts ticking quickly.

PowerQuest officials explained that their products tend to be tied very
closely to the operating system, and they have to bring out new releases on
a frequent basis.

The company has essentially made a business decision that a new operating
system from Microsoft means PowerQuest customers must upgrade. I guess that
makes sense from the company's point of view, but I don't think PowerQuest
should be overly surprised if customers don't like it.

No column about innovative ways to push upgrades would be complete without
checking on Intuit's latest technique for getting QuickBooks customers to
pay more for payroll capabilities. Several QuickBooks 2001 customers
recently reported getting calls from Intuit telemarketers informing them
that, as of next year, customers would be required to upgrade to QuickBooks
2002 if they wanted to keep using the payroll service. As usual, it turns
out that the telemarketers are telling a few fibs here, but ones based on a
grain of truth.

According to an Intuit spokesman, under the company's new sunset policies
(which are spelled out in detail at www.quickbooks.com/sunset) QuickBooks
2000 and QuickBooks 2001 users are not required to upgrade to continue using
the optional subscription-based payroll service. But payroll users of two
older versions deemed antiquated -- QuickBooks 6.0 and QuickBooks 99 -- will
have to upgrade to a more recent version by the end of 2002. And it is
expected that the 2000 and 2001 versions will each be retired by the next
releases.

New versions of QuickBooks won't necessarily come out on a yearly basis (new
tax rules are part of the payroll service), but that sure seems to be
Intuit's modus operandi. If so, that works out to a three-year product life.
That may not seem totally unreasonable, but accounting packages don't have
to change nearly as quickly as anti-virus software. And keep in mind that
when the QuickBooks 6.0 customers bought their product, they thought payroll
was a feature of the program they could use as long as they wanted. I guess
sometimes one only sees the light after sunset.

Ed Foster is InfoWorld's reader advocate. Contact him at
gripe@infoworld.com.

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