Should have been Version 5.6, not 6.0

[Mike Hedblom <mhedblom@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

In V5.0 we got a lot of new features.  In V5.5 we got an engine overhaul
with a lot of bugs, and a few new morsals.  V5.5.6 was what V5.5 should
have been, and a few more new morsels to keep the crowd happy.  Now,
over a year later -- and 2.5 years since V5.0 -- we get the first MAJOR
release, a 6.0, a product that "makes short work of long documents", and
it does this by:

1) Replacing the Adobe developed HTML with Web Works (which everyone
already has)
2) Replacing the Adobe developed XML with Web Works
3) Throwing in some book-wide features (yawn) that should have been in
V5.0.

Exactly what has Adobe been doing with FrameMaker for the last year
other than ripping out Adobe developed code and giving us a pretty easy
to implement feature?

OK, maybe that is too harsh.  After all, my company has a maintenance
agreement, so we get the new "major version" as part of that program
we've been paying for for the last two years (at UNIX prices mind
you!).  However, all of my offsite contractors and work-at-home
employees have to pay to upgrade their personal copies in order to keep
compatible with work! 

Oh.

Now I get it!  That's what this release is all about.  Adobe wants my
offsite personnel to pay money to upgrade -- for the work Adobe did
ripping out code that we paid for them to add to earlier releases; code
for features we didn't use because because they were such a poor
implementation.

And remember. all of this to allow us to keep using the product that
"makes short work of long documents".

Quite frankly, this looks more like Version 5.6 than it does Version
6.0.  But that would be really hard to sell, so Adobe just bumped the
version number.  Nothing to get excited about really.  This happens all
the time in the software industry --  usually when the company hasn't
released a new version in over two years.


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