Blog post: New year, new home ;-)
Blog post: New year, new home ;-)
#blog #delphi #linux
https://blog.andreamagni.eu/2017/01/new-year-new-home/
Blog post: New year, new home ;-)
#blog #delphi #linux
https://blog.andreamagni.eu/2017/01/new-year-new-home/
As usual, the folks at Embarcadero Technologies make questionable choices: why on earth the Linux platform should only be available on the Enterprise SKU is something I don't get.
ReplyDeletePresumably so that they can extract as much money as possible from those that really need it. Then, 6 months later, it will be offered on other editions, via BOGO offers etc.
ReplyDeleteAndrea Raimondi, I guess "Pythia" in her all infinite wisdom told them so :).
ReplyDeletePersonally, I had an Enterprise edition since more than a decade and I find that the yearly cost (having a subscription) is fair compared to the other "tools" I need to do my job (think about my laptop, storage, car, public transportation and so on). Delphi is (and has been) the main source of revenue for me as a professional developer.
ReplyDeleteOf course, I can understand having Linux on a cheaper edition may have been a more popular decision but if you go down this hill, way not ask for a full featured version of Delphi FREE! ;-)
Andrea Magni that is not totally what I mean: in fact, that's a cheap and offensive way to put it, but I'll slide on that.
ReplyDeleteWhat I am saying is that the Enterprise version should have Enterprise features. I'll expand later because I have no time right now.
OK, I got a bit of time now, so let's expand on what - precisely - I mean there.
ReplyDeleteBasically, here's a breakdown of what I think should happen feature-wise with Delphi Enterprise:
FireDac/Replication
Linux/Docker integration,advanced AppTethering integration with specific Linux features, etc.
SOAP/Enhanced wizards with security support
This is the sort of thinking that should work at an Enterprise level. What is the bloody point of stopping people from using remote databases? Seriously, I am curious! And, with the rise of the cloud, why would you not want a professional developer to be able to deploy on Linux which is cheaper? See, that's - in my opinion - a huge part of what holds back IderaSoftware from opening the floodgates.
You know where a local DB limitation makes some sort of sense? At the starter level. That's where it makes sense. That's where you can put an add-on and say "Well, if you want to do DB stuff then you have to pay your fair share", because that is totally legit (in my view) even though even then I am not entirely sure it's helpful.
With IoT, that's another area where IderaSoftware could have lots of fun with specialised features, nifty integrations such as - for instance - App Tethering-derived components that make the sensors available in a common format.
And this is just off the top of my head.
I am not going into this discussion . Just want to say that there was nothing offensive in my words and that there was an emoticon in my message...
ReplyDeleteHere's the irony of this situation: people use Linux for web hosting because it's CHEAPER than Microsoft's solutions!!! And because it's easy to find people who have experience with these (free) tools.
ReplyDeleteYou don't get these people (ie, those looking to leverage free open-source software) to use your product by putting additional cost barriers in front of them and creating an artificially restricted market that both limits available expertise and drives your support costs WAY UP.
The projects that need the kind of support featured only in the Enterprise Editions of Delphi usually employ Microsoft's stuff so they don't get stuck unable to find developers who can't support the code. There are so few people who've got direct, hands-on experience with features that are only in the EE that it would be extremely difficult and expensive to hire people to maintain code using them. This is totally counter-productive IMHO. What's the business model that justifies this for companies considering it as a solution today? People don't get fired for going with Microsoft, the same way that they never got fired for going with IBM for decades -- it's a no-brainer. But going with Delphi is an uphill battle that NOBODY in the enterprise wants to take on today. It's Microsoft or open-source.
In my 20+ years of working with Delphi, I've personally never worked on a project, or even had the opportunity to work on one, that used ANY of the features specific to the EE. This is why I won't buy the EE -- there's no ROI unless I drive it myself. In most cases, it's nearly impossible for clients to justify the additional long-term support costs due to lack of available people who've worked with this stuff. Cripes, they won't even use Delphi at all for NEW projects any more because of this general lack of experienced support resources! ("If you get hit by the proverbial truck, how hard will it be for me to find someone to replace you?")
For Delphi, "Enterprise Edition" has always been nothing more than a way of packaging that brings in incremental revenues for the company from people who want to play with the latest "shiny objects". Nothing in their EE versions is available for people to use more narrowly in ways that expand their market. If it was packaged as some kind of optional plugin, that would make a little more sense. But if their mobile support is any indication, that doesn't work well either.
If they wanted to try something really radical, they'd add a limited version of the new Linux support to the free Starter Editions as well as full support to the Pro Editions and see if this generates more "upgrades" to the Pro Editions as a result. At least this would have a chance to GROW THE OVERALL DELPHI MARKET! Squeezing a few upgrades from PE to EE may give a nice revenue bump for Idera, but isn't growing the Delphi market at all. Unless the overall Delphi market begins to expand again, all of these new features are nothing more than shiny objects for existing users to play with.
I personally question the wisdom of tying yourself to a proprietary language with limited hardware support, on Linux.
ReplyDeleteDelphi for Linux, AMD64 only. Who can predict the future development of hardware? Are servers really going to be exclusively AMD64 in 5 years time? 10 years time? Who wants to end up with a truck load of code that is tied to a specific platform?
It's one thing being tied to a specific platform when you are doing GUI programming because the platforms are so different. But for server programming, that's just not the case. Server devs will expect to write code that can be made portable to almost any platform.
I can see the attraction of the Delphi mobile offering, even though it's not something I personally would opt for. But for the life of me I cannot see why any server side dev would want to tie themselves to Delphi for AMD64.
David Heffernan the point is not deciding to write new code in a proprietary language. But reuse the existing code to target a new platform. You have Delphi code. You gain an opportunity to target an additional platform. So it's not "choosing" Delphi for that. Sometimes (actually usually) one just cannot choose the best framework/language for the platform. It's just not feasible.
ReplyDeleteWagner Landgraf I understand what you are syaing, and I also am trapped on Delphi with a large codebase (VCL).
ReplyDeleteBut I don't think they'll succeed if they only target existing clients. With their mobile strategy they went after new customers. A strategy I could understand.
And if they really are going after existing customers then they wouldn't be doing it with ARC. Because people with existing server code won't have ARC ready code.
So, I don't think you are right. I think they are going after new customers, because they are opting for an ARC compiler.
David Heffernan, why not? Delphi it's been a niche for a while already, and you have to define what is "succeed". Linux compiler is just another feature of many others, it's up to the customer to decide if it has a value or not. I'm just discussing your point of questioning the "wisdom" of those who choose this solution
ReplyDeleteWagner Landgraf Yes, it's up to the customer. I just don't think there will be many takers for Delphi/ARC on Linux AMD64. I can't see the USP.
ReplyDeleteIs there anything published yet that discusses these things? I haven't seen it. The odd thing about specifying AMD64 is that it should be the same as Intel's 64-bit platform, only easier to specify. Intel has gone nuts with their chip designations. I saw where Microsoft licenses SQL Server based on the number of cores of Intel CPUs it can use. Sheesh.
ReplyDeleteAMD64 is the same as the Intel x64 architecture. They call it EMT64 or something.
ReplyDeleteAndrea Raimondi I also wonder about the relevance of the positioning. FPC has Linux support for decade(s)... Doesn't impose ARC. Can do serious enterprise server work thanks to its enterprise level open source libraries. And is free.
ReplyDelete