Ohhh goody, PDA software price wars!

Damn and I just paid out for a copy!

Now I guess it'll be a 'feature fight'.

How about all you software and hardware vendors get together and agree on an
interoperability standard so that us poor pilots can build systems with
fully interchangeable components - Loggers - varios - PDA's etc ( that means
less of the proprietary interface stuff) It could only be a good thing for
gliding. Especially with the last little scare about the some equipment no
longer being supported by the manufacturers/ the IGC. A common
interoperability standard would at least ensure the life of systems.

Ian

Yeh, I'm sure sorry to hear about this new price too. I just spent $375 for
a copy.
--
Gary Boggs
3650 Airport Dr.
Hood River, Oregon, USA
97031-9613
"tango4" wrote in message
...
Damn and I just paid out for a copy!

Now I guess it'll be a 'feature fight'.

How about all you software and hardware vendors get together and agree on an
interoperability standard so that us poor pilots can build systems with
fully interchangeable components - Loggers - varios - PDA's etc ( that means
less of the proprietary interface stuff) It could only be a good thing for
gliding. Especially with the last little scare about the some equipment no
longer being supported by the manufacturers/ the IGC. A common
interoperability standard would at least ensure the life of systems.

Ian

Gary Boggs wrote:

Yeh, I'm sure sorry to hear about this new price too. I just spent $375 for
a copy.
Question is - was/is it worth the $375 - if so be happy. If it is not, why did
you buy it?

Good luck to the guys who are getting it cheap, but remember that you eventually
get what you pay for in software. It still costs time/money to develop this
stuff. YOu can discount to buy market share, or be chaeper because you live in a
low cost location, but there are limits. So if the price becomes too low to
support - especially in a fragmented market, people start leaving, or stop
developing...

Ahhhhh, another Microshaft drone

Free software works, like it or not!

:-)

I hear it's getting cooler down your way Bruce. Only 28 degrees or so. Soon
you'll have nothing but 4 knot ( 2 metre ) midwinter thermals whilst we are
into stonking 6 knot midsummer ones!

Ian

Bruce Greeff wrote:
Gary Boggs wrote:

Yeh, I'm sure sorry to hear about this new price too. I just spent
$375 for
a copy.

Question is - was/is it worth the $375 - if so be happy. If it is not,
why did you buy it?

Gary should be happy, as you say. Free updates for a whole year now,
instead of only 6 months.


Good luck to the guys who are getting it cheap, but remember that you
eventually get what you pay for in software.

If this were really true, it would be easy to buy good softwa just
pick the most expensive! But, I sit here using Netscape 7.1, a free
browser, email client, and web page composer that is at least the equal
to IE 6 and Outlook Express, and without so many security issues.
Mozilla 1.6 is even better, and just as free. And look at how many
corporations use Linux.

It still costs time/money
to develop this stuff. YOu can discount to buy market share, or be
chaeper because you live in a low cost location, but there are limits.

Aye, and that's the rub: just where are those limits? We won't know
until people stretch them a little, will we?

So if the price becomes too low to support - especially in a fragmented
market, people start leaving, or stop developing...

True in general, but in this _particular_ case, can we say $250US is too
low? With Strepla's and CU's entry into the market, I suggest they think
not. And after CU's success with their flight display software, I
suspect it isn't.
--
-----
change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA

The great thing about software these days is that a
good programmer can have a nice little business over
the Internet so long as it's cheap to acquire customers.

The soaring community is a small market and the racing/cross-count
ry segment is a small proportion of that small market.
But, it's also pretty close-knit (with the Internet
it's truly global). So, with essentially no cost of
goods and very little marketing or distribution cost,
a team of one or two programmers can earn a decent
living. Say, $150/copy (net) x 1-2,000 new copies per
year yields a pretty solid, if not extravagant, income.
Even the upgrade business isn't too bad at $50/copy
if you can keep a significant portion of your overall
installed base renewing each year.

Free software works, but only to the extent that you
can keep a community of talented volunteers interested
in continuing to innovate and support the product (the
latter being the tougher part since programmers tend
not to like all the administrative BS associate with
product support).

Personally, I don't find a few hundred bucks to be
all that much to pay for what these products do in
terms of increasing the enjoyment and safety of cross-country
and racing flights - not to mention the potential for
improvement in overall pilot performance. I bought
a copy of WinPilot Pro last year and paid for copy
of SeeYou mobile. Consider it a subsidy for continued
development. They're both quite good pieces of software
and I hope they both prove successful in the market.


At 16:48 20 February 2004, Eric Greenwell wrote:
Bruce Greeff wrote:
Gary Boggs wrote:

Yeh, I'm sure sorry to hear about this new price too.
I just spent
$375 for
a copy.

Question is - was/is it worth the $375 - if so be
happy. If it is not,
why did you buy it?

Gary should be happy, as you say. Free updates for
a whole year now,
instead of only 6 months.


Good luck to the guys who are getting it cheap, but
remember that you
eventually get what you pay for in software.

If this were really true, it would be easy to buy good
softwa just
pick the most expensive! But, I sit here using Netscape
7.1, a free
browser, email client, and web page composer that is
at least the equal
to IE 6 and Outlook Express, and without so many
security issues.
Mozilla 1.6 is even better, and just as free. And look
at how many
corporations use Linux.

It still costs time/money
to develop this stuff. YOu can discount to buy market
share, or be
chaeper because you live in a low cost location, but
there are limits.

Aye, and that's the rub: just where are those limits?
We won't know
until people stretch them a little, will we?

So if the price becomes too low to support - especially
in a fragmented
market, people start leaving, or stop developing...

True in general, but in this _particular_ case, can
we say $250US is too
low? With Strepla's and CU's entry into the market,
I suggest they think
not. And after CU's success with their flight display
software, I
suspect it isn't.
--
-----
change 'netto' to 'net' to email me directly

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA

Is anyone working on Linux flight software?

I've been looking at some really neat PIII "Car Computers" with 7 inch
screens that run on a very modest amount of 12V DC current - a 7.5 AH
battery should run one 6 hours or more. They cost about the same as a PDA
but have bigger screens, more performance and are infinitely customizable.

Bill Daniels

I can't wait until the day when our entire panel will be a screen all with
the other instruments, and info just superimposed on the moving map that
will be landstat photos of what we are seeing out the canopy.

--
Gary Boggs
3650 Airport Dr.
Hood River, Oregon, USA
97031-9613
"Bill Daniels" wrote in message
...
Is anyone working on Linux flight software?

I've been looking at some really neat PIII "Car Computers" with 7 inch
screens that run on a very modest amount of 12V DC current - a 7.5 AH
battery should run one 6 hours or more. They cost about the same as a PDA
but have bigger screens, more performance and are infinitely customizable.

Bill Daniels

Bill Daniels wrote:

Is anyone working on Linux flight software?

http://cumulus.kflog.org/

Marc

"Gary Boggs" wrote in message
...
I can't wait until the day when our entire panel will be a screen all with
the other instruments, and info just superimposed on the moving map that
will be landstat photos of what we are seeing out the canopy.


Essentially, this could be done now. These 12V computer systems are the
same as the most powerful laptops and come with the same array of I/O ports
like USB 2.0 and IEEE 1394. They can use hard drives or Flash Memory
virtual drives to make them more rugged. A single 7.5 AH SLA battery would
power the thing for more than 6 hours.

You would use an "Air Data" sensor that measures pitot/static pressure,air
temp and TE probe pressure. Add a USB GPS engine and you have all you need.
From this, compute and display IAS, TAS, Altitude, Vario (TE, Average, Netto
etc.) - use vertical tape displays if you prefer. Of course, the glide
computer with the moving map would be in the center of the display.
Updating the panel would become a matter of just updating the software.

The display could be a thin, daylight readable LCD that hinges down over the
existing panel containing the old round instruments. If the newfangled
computer goes belly up, just lift the screen up to reveal the old panel.

Bill Daniels