Quiet Advances
Userland continues to crank out new features, bug fixes.
Two months have passed since the (second) commercial release of Frontier. It's been a challenging time in Frontier-land, as Userland tries to turn users into customers.
A Rocky Start
Although Userland has broadcast the fact that Frontier would become a commercial product for over a year, the stark reality came as a shock to most Frontier users. Not just the fact that they'd have to pay for what had been, up to now, been free--but that they might have to pay through the nose.
Eyes lit up with sticker shock at the bizarre new pricing--a three tier licensing scheme where you pay for different levels of support. The cheapest, 'individual' licenses go for $299, developer/commercial license for $899, and partner level license for a staggering $6000 a year. For Frontier hobbyists, this was absolutely horrendous--and some were miffed by what they referred to as the 'third-class user' license.
Particularly confusing was the obtuse email announcement that went out to registered users at the time of the announcement--the prices were presented as monthly prices (although the all but the partner license have to be paid in one-year installments). There was a discount program that was difficult to understand--and which seemingly disappeared a few days later.
Damage Control
Probably the biggest casuality of the confusing rollout was recognition of Userland's achievement: the commercial release of a fantastic cross-platform tool for content management (and a lot of other things). The Userland team worked very hard to release this product, and did an excellent job.
However, the focus was elsewhere--the mailing lists were abuzz with lots of questions and few answers for a few days. Userland regrouped and basically re-explained what they had tried to communicate previously.
There was still a lot of buzz on the lists, but people settled down as they examined the substance of the announcements.
What the real news was
The real news was, of course, the release of Frontier 5.1.
A vastly improved HTML framework; XML features; TCP functions, including a strong server framework; script profiling; bug fixes; more. All in all, an impressive release.
And as Frontier proves that it is commercially viable (it is; I believe it a matter of time before more and more people--including investors--realize this), this also means that (with luck) Frontier will continue to exist and grow and improve. A free Frontier didn't offer that future.
Hobbyists and Pricing
However, many hobbyists who have used Frontier will not be able to enjoy that growth and success. The price tag is prohibitive for the casual user. (Are there casual users of Frontier?) Student pricing, as well as some discount packages have lessened the pain, but it still remains to see whether these hobbyists will become paid users. (I've encountered Frontier refugees on two different non-Frontier developer mailing lists in the last week.)
But the pricing structure does make sense for Userland--it reflects what their costs are. And it is not so expensive for companies, especially when software that Frontier competes with runs in the tens of thousands of dollars.
And in the right hands, the cost of Frontier can easily be recouped in a few weeks. Frontier is so good at improving current workflows and marrying other applications together, that in no time will productivity be increased. (The key is finding the right hands, and knowledge, to drive Frontier.)
A better Read Me
In the past few months Userland has drastically improved its documentation. A new How-To's section gives clear and concise instructions for specific tasks. An excellent search engine on the Frontier 5 site has made the online documentation more manageable.
The lack of a printed/printable manual is still a major deficiency. It is easy to berate Userland for this. However, reality forces us to recognize that Userland is a small 4 person effort that doesn't really have the resources to produce a proper manual. One can only hope that this will be rectified.
But, with that exception, docs have improved markedly.
Steady and Regular Updates.
Meanwhile, fixes and improvements have been coming from Userland on a nearly daily basis. Part of the advantage of buying Frontier is access to the updates and bug fixes. These have come at a steady clip from Userland--sometimes minutes after a problem is reported. (Userland recently integrated a suggestion about binary objects that was discussed on this website.)
This has been the best part of what Userland has done in the last two months. Such sterling service inspires more confidence and trust--this is especially good, because it comes at a time when the mood on the public Frontier mail list has ranged from wariness to downright hostility.
In the wake of the negative mood on the list, Userland has probably been hesitant to toot it's own horn. But they deserve credit for the numerous small improvements that they have made--especially the ones that came in response to user requests.
Quiet Advances
It is these quiet advances that, im my opinion, are most important to users of Frontier. Although new features get alot of the attention, the reality where I live is--"Does this work for me?" User experience is not measured in new features, but in the number of successful interactions I have with the software. And successful interactions simply means getting work done.
I believe bug fixes, documentation, and increased ease-of-use are key to driving the growth of the number of Frontier users and Userland's success. And I'm gratified to see Userland delivering these things.
Mon, Aug 24, 1998 at 9:00:43 AM by PS
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