InfoWorld Home / Adventures in IT / Advice Line / What to do when a software vendor eliminates an...
June 23, 2009

What to do when a software vendor eliminates an important feature

When a software vendor changes direction, you may not have a great option or even an adequate one

| Print | 8 comments|
418 Recommendations

This isn't a subject I follow closely. It seems to follow a well-worn trajectory, though: Start with user-friendly tools that make things easy to do, then replace them with professional tools that eliminate the user-friendly part in exchange for industrial-strength functionality.

Interestingly, it appears Microsoft is now avoiding any suggestion that Expression Web is the successor to FrontPage, a replacement, or in fact has any connection at all.

It's simply discontinuing FrontPage (presumably due to lack of interest -- something I find remarkable) and simultaneously launching Expression Web, abandoning its FrontPage customers entirely in the process.

Unfathomable.

For CIOs and CTOs, this sort of situation can be particularly challenging, because the challenge goes far beyond losing a critical feature. Potentially it means having to run on obsolete software while charting a project to convert entire applications to a new platform; finding third-party solutions to fill the gap (making the architecture more fragile in the process); or developing work-arounds in-house (also making the architecture more fragile in the process).

You didn't ask for advice, which is just as well because I don't have any useful advice to offer. Your alternatives are obvious -- accept Expression Web's limitations, or find a better alternative.

I just thought you might feel better, knowing that other folks in IT face equivalent challenges on a regular basis.

Misery does love company, doesn't it?

- Bob

Related Content...

White Paper

D2D Virtual Tape Library Replication Primer

This whitepaper explains the terminology and concepts behind Data Replication technologies and establishes some sizing rules through worked examples. Learn the new paradigm in disaster tolerance—protect data anywhere.

Download now »

White Paper

An Alternative to Virtualization for Datacenter Cost Savings

Server virtualization is a popular option for dealing with mounting datacenter costs. Another equally promising approach is the use of an Application Delivery Controller. Citrix NetScaler provides a low-cost way for organizations to reduce their server count and accrue cost savings from a reduction in space, cooling, power and personnel.

Download now »

White Paper

Why Your Firewall, VPN, and IEEE 802.11i Aren't Enough to Protect Your Network

The emergence of WLANs has created a new breed of security threats to enterprise networks.

Included in HP ProCurve WLAN solutions is security technology that alleviates threats from WLANs through:
* Monitoring wireless activity inside and out of the enterprise
* Classifying WLAN transmissions into harmful and harmless
* Preventing transmissions that pose a security threat to the enterprise network
* Locating participating devices for physical remediation

Download now »

White Paper

Bringing the Edge to the Data Center

Effectively address data protection challenges, implementing solutions that help store and protect business–critical data while cutting costs and improving efficiency and reliability.

Download now »
8 of 8 comments
Sign In or Register to comment
gingerb 24-Jun-09 12:15pm
I hear you! I made us of a nice feature in MS Access. Users could generate a query result and then use the menu "Office Links" to plop their query results into Excel without ever seeing a dialog box. I got Office 2007 and poof - it's gone. I know these things appear petty and stupid, but I'm sure I'm not the only person out there who is pressed to make things work with the tools that are available -- i.e. my employer has already purchased so that's what I'm supposed to work with -- and by the way make it easy for people to use and can we have it yesterday.
apeshansky 24-Jun-09 12:24pm
I hate to say this, but anyone relying on Microsoft in their business deserves what they got. This assumes, of course, that there is a choice, and creating web sites is a choice-rich environment.
RayBay 24-Jun-09 12:55pm
Any who knew anything at all about web pages avoided Front Page... and there was no hew and cry when it was dropped... just another piece of bad software that was dropped because it was not used... Junk, actually. Nobody worth their salt was using Front Page... The changes to Excel are much more serious, and dramatic for those who used earlier versions... not to mention the hundreds of thousands who detest Word 2007... Microsoft took sorta perfectly good programs and ruined them in attempts to stop the copying and the misuse... Nobody good uses Microsoft Office 2007, unless their company sent them to the classes, and now cannot justify going back to 2003.
mulithats 24-Jun-09 2:04pm
I have been using Microsoft Office 2007 for about a month and so far it seems ok. I have even found useful improvements in Excel. But what annoys me, is the fact they eliminated the Data Access Pages in Access 2007. Yes, I know they were not a secure and robust tool. They were good enough for some quick and dirt data display over the intranet.
Kernos 25-Jun-09 8:27am
It ain't limited to Micro$oft. Safari 4 has taken away my reload/cancel button and more importantly my URL loading progress bar. The solution is to use Safari 3.x until it no longer works or learn new behaviors.
Janet Jonas 25-Jun-09 11:47am
Actually, Safari 4 has the reload/cancel on the right side of the url location, where it also shows if the page is loading. Just a small change that I got used to fairly quickly.
TychaBrahe 26-Jun-09 2:11pm
Tell me about it. I'm still using PaintShop Pro 4.12, which is about 13 years old at this point. Why? Because it does what I want it to do. I don't need/want the power of something like PhotoShop. I don't want to spend the money nor take the time to learn to do what I already know how to do. Why haven't I upgraded? Because PaintShop Pro 5.0 removed the ability to create text using built-in fonts like Courier and FixedSys, fonts that are used in the software I document. I need to create document images with modified customer names to protect our clients' privacy, and the info is displayed in fonts the newer software can't edit. BTW, I used FrontPage because I learned to use it 12 years ago, and so long as it did what I needed to do, I felt no need to change applications. I don't upgrade for the sheer joy of being cutting edge. I upgrade when the software no longer meets my needs. Someone else's opinion about how the software that works for me is crap really doesn't change that.
ekimball002 30-Jun-09 7:21am
One more example: Someone at MS decided that Office 2008 for Mac could use AppleScript for its macros (possibly a good idea) and therefore no longer needed VBA (terrible idea!). Office 2008 is thus useless to those of us who rely on VBA macros, especially if we must exchange documents with users of Office for Windows. MS has already announced that the next major release of Office for Mac will include VBA - we just have to wait a couple of years to get it back. What were they thinking?

Sign up to receive InfoWorld Resource Alerts

Subscribe to the Lewis: Advice Line Newsletter

The one-stop resource center for IT professionals.

©1994-2009 Infoworld, Inc.