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Good morning DaveNet!
This is the week we take the wraps off the first commercial release of Frontier since 1993. Five years inbetween, a major turn to the standards of the Internet, we aim at a different market, web-based businesses, and instead of competing with platform vendors, we're aiming at a market that's currently defined by Vignette StoryServer and Inso Dynabase and technology ideas pioneered by Telescript and Java.
***Change!
Lots of change is happening and most of my keyboard time is being spent communicating with customers. Not much time to write a DaveNet. I wish I could because I'm learning so much! I wish I could share it all. When the dust settles, I hope to be able to do that. Very exciting times here at UserLand.
On Friday we sent an email to registered Frontier users outlining the new program. It's subscription-based and three-tiered. We're asking for more money than many people thought we would. This touched off a heated discussion on the Frontier community mail list. We waited to respond until most of the opinions were out. Then we changed some aspects of our pricing. We want our users to turn into customers. But we also want UserLand to be a good investment vehicle.
***A ten year ride
Our eye is on the big prize. We think Frontier 5.1, the new release, with new performance, reliability and compatibility; new HTTP client and server capabilities; market-leading XML support; and breakthrough net-based RPC technology; is the development environment that Telescript wanted to be and that Java will someday be. I know those are bold statements but I believe they're true.
It's been a ten-year ride, and now I feel that Frontier is ready to take its place alongside the classics of the software world, not just as a widely-used web development system, but as a leader in a new class of applications that build on the Internet as if it were a complete development platform.
***Tuning in
If you want to follow the developments in the next few days, tune in to:
http://betty.userland.com/5.1/default.wsf
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I've got more writing to do, so see you sooooon!
Dave Winer