Subject Re: You Ask - What Is The Future Direction For dBASE2019 From Mervyn Bick <invalid@invalid.invalid> Date Mon, 3 Apr 2023 14:49:14 +0200 Newsgroups dbase.getting-started On 2023/04/02 18:57, Edward Racht wrote: > Greetings, > > You ask:  What’s our direction into the future with no discussion as to > what is wrong with the current direction. There is no apparent current direction to discuss.  dBase LLC appears to be moribund. Despite that fact that there are several hundred issues which still need to be resolved, there has been no upgrade to dBASE 2019 for three years.   The last report in the bug-report newsgroup was acknowledged two years ago.  The "Newsroom" page on the website was last updated two years ago.   The CEO has not responded to an email sent about 7 weeks ago.  All of these point to a company without a future. > So - Based on cost-benefit analyses and dedicated staff to get the job > done - something positive will come for the dBASE LLC Application > Development Environment it supports globally. Past achievements, no matter how impressive, mean absolutely nothing if nothing is happening at present. > My position for the future direction is - FULL STEAM AHEAD!! I'm afraid dBase LLC seems to have completely run out of steam and that spells potential disaster for anyone relying on dBASE for an income. Each copy of dBASE is licensed to a specific person and is not transferable.  If you no longer use your copy of dBASE you can't sell it or even give it away.  To help enforce this, each licensed copy can only be installed a limited number of times.  Each time it is installed it contacts a server at dBase LLC.  If it has installs available the install is completed and the number of installs available is decremented.  If a user runs out of installs due to the replacement of equipment Customer Service will increase the number of installs if convinced that the licensing conditions are not being broken. Sooner or later you are going to need to replace hardware and if dBase LLC, or its successor, is not there to authorise an install on the new equipment you are also out of the dBASE business. Mervyn.