SmartSDR upgrade fees

Robert -- N5IKD

These are the same rules when you buy Photoshop or Lightroom or AutoCAD etc.

Dale KB5VE

I feel that in the long run this is the best way to go. Buying by the year could always be a negative. And with the FRS guys allowing us to skip a version and pick up the newest and greatest. i do have three questions: 1. Will the new versions have something similar to the roadmap so you can decied if you want to pop on the newest version and do you plan on releaseing parts of the version as the 1.0 has been done. 2. if you skip a version will the next one have everything in it from all previous versions? 3. if a friend of mine decides to buy a radio and version 3.0 is the newest version, is that the version he will get in his radio and it will be supported until he upgrades? With the fact that version 2 could be two years off the time element goesaway and we have saved money. Being a careful shopper i will make sure version 2 will give me a **** for my buck. i have a free upgrade in the hole so i want to use it wisely.

Mike K5UX

Gerald, I think your explanation/decision is spot-on and I agree. Very similar analogy to Microsoft operating systems.....you purchase Windows 7 and get all the updates for that product during its life cycle. On the other hand you may elect to purchase Windows 8 and shortly after initial release, received an updated 8.1 release at no cost and will receive free updates during its life cycle. I think you made the best decision for FRS and it's customers. I never thought the 1 year thing would work for the very reasons you cited in your post. Mike K5UX

Gerald-K5SDR

Mike, you are absolutely correct in your analogy. Further, if you have a Windows XP PC, you could have skipped Vista, Win 7, and then have chosen to purchase Win 8.1 without purchasing any of the ones in between. For me I would jump from XP to Win 7 instead of Win 8. It is my choice.

Gerald-K5SDR

Dale, In answer to your numbered questions: 1. We have not worked through the details beyond v1.4. I am sure we will have answers to this before 1.4 comes out. 2. Yes. 3. Yes.

Gerald-K5SDR

If you choose to skip v2.0 and go straight to v3.0, you do not have to pay for v2.0 to get v3.0. This is just as you don't have to pay for Vista, Win 7, and Win 8 to go to Win 8.1 if you upgraded your old XP PC today.

Gerald-K5SDR

Note that I misread Al's invoice in my original comment to this post. I was wrong and Tim is correct. The word Renewal is the wrong term in the line item. This is the actually value of the release that ships with the radio. The discount says that the then current version comes free with the radio.

Gerald-K5SDR

Dale, Let me add one further clarification to number 2. We reserve the right to change the operation of a feature/function or even remove it in a given new release. For example, the GEN band was removed from v1.0.5 because it did not make sense in the SmartSDR paradigm at the moment. In other words, there is no guarantee that some feature in v2.0 will work exactly the same way in v3.0 or even be there if it does not make sense.

Dale KB5VE

Gerald will there be a prerelease something like the roadmap for future releases. I have thought the roadmap was a excellent tool. You mentioned the removing of the Gen and that brought up the idea could there be a possibility that we could have the option to choose the class we had and our band limits would be set by license and mode. While helping a new flex 6500 user one of the frequency police flexed his muscle and pointed out his transmit bandwidth was over the band edge. I had not noticed since I am a extra. Just a thought. I know you will never please everybody but the version release is the best move for the future of smart sdr. I can see a version with flexes own software suite designed to work with the 6000 series. The opertunities are many.

Rick N4RZ

I'm a Limited Edition owner and going to the major releases versus years sounds fine to me. SInce it simplifies the overall process. I do have one question, Do we get all 1.x versions and all 2.x versions or does our free support stop with version 2.0?

Gerald-K5SDR

Dale, once we get to that point we will probably give some but not all of the roadmap items for future major releases. We have not worked through the detail so I can't make a commitment on what would be included at that time.

Gerald-K5SDR

Rick, as a Limited Edition customer you get all releases of v1.x plus one future major release credit. Support continues for v1.x as long as you choose to use it. You can use your major release credit against the future major release of your choice. You could choose to use it for v2.0 or you could skip v2.0 and wait for v3.0. That means you would continue using v1.x until v3.0 comes out. At that time you would get all v3.x point releases and support. This is identical to the PC/Windows model as I described earlier.

Mickey N4MB

Microsoft is a bad analogy. Items covered in a Microsoft Enterprise (support) Agreement cover all updates to those items INCLUDING version upgrades... Windows 98 to Windows 8, even! It is a calendar driven agreement.

Gerald-K5SDR

Everyone who buys a radio with v.1.x gets all future v1.x releases no matter when they are released. As a LE customer you get one additional major release of your choise and all point releases for that major release. You can choose to skip v2 and wait for v3 if you like. Standard edition customers received v1.0 and all point releases after that.