Longest beta phase ever

[neil.young]

This is obviously the longest beta phase ever in the world. Seems to me, that the splash is right: Servant Salamander 2.5, 1999-2006.

I mean: When will you finally come to an end? I was happy with 2.0 and I'm happy with 2.5 since it has ftp.

Please - come down finally. Don't make Servant Salamander a feature monster, hard to handle at all.

On the other hand: I'll need at least the next 3 betas to get familiar with this irritating new icon.... What the hell is that? Footprints of a salamander? Or just a man falling down? Today I spent at least 3 hours seeking for the good old salamander icon on my desk

Regards

[Jan Rysavy]

We will finish the language translation support and documentation. Then the final version 2.5 will be released.

I am sorry for such long beta stage, we will switch to the date-driven release model with one year period. Please look at ALTAP Roadmap.

Let us know how long it took you to get familiarized with our irritating icon

[KNUT]

I am sorry for such long beta stage

No excuses, Jan - everything is ok!!!

[Josip Tosic]

I don't mind beta if it's stable. For all I care you can call it alpha, I'd still use it.

[kaishaku.org]

Seriously, I only came here to talk about the icon.

It looks great, but it is not as distinguishing from other icons
I use. In the end, this shape, with the gradients and even in
this color server to camouflage this icon fairly well.

This has prompted me to write an icon injector if one does
not already exist. The icon is important for people with 3 rows
of applications open in their taskbar, and alt-tab wizards.

[JohnFredC]

3 rows of applications open in their taskbar

I gave up on a bottom Windows task bar years ago. Now my task bar is on the left with autohide enabled. It displays a nice, simple, linear list of my open applications. Widening the task bar allows me to even read the filenames on the buttons, without impacting screen real estate for my open apps.

MS's default Taskbar approaches abomination, in my opinion.

[Heimo]

Hi everybody,

All in all I'm happy with Salamander. The only bad thing is, I really get sick with this install/uninstall processes every three months. Why isn't it possible for registered versions of Salamander, that we can use them for a longer time? I never had problems with the beta versions.

But I think it is time now to take a look at other File Managers.

Sad but true
Heimo

[manison]

Why isn't it possible for registered versions of Salamander, that we can use them for a longer time?

I think Altap made this restriction to ensure that all betatester are running the latest version.

[Jan Rysavy]

I think Altap made this restriction to ensure that all betatester are running the latest version.

Exactly. The expiration is not there for bothering our beta testers. We will improve the update process for further versions of Servant Salamander -- update will be one-click action.

[Heimo]

I think Altap made this restriction to ensure that all betatester are running the latest version.

I'm not a Beta Tester, I'm a USER of Salamander. It's also not so good for Altap itself. Which company will buy licences of Salamander, if the Administrators would have to uninstall/install new versions all the time?! Come to an end, bring out version 2.5 and add the planned features in a higher version.

Bye
Heimo

PS: I need FTP/SCP, so to use Salamander version 2.0 is not a alternative (but maybe Total- or Win Commander)

[Josip Tosic]

[...]
The icon is important for people with 3 rows of applications open in their taskbar, and alt-tab wizards.

File manager is always the first button on my taskbar. It starts, and shuts down, with Wierdows.

Unless someone else is working on my computer and closes it, in which case there's a lot of yelling and wailing and gnashing of teeth.

[manison]

I'm not a Beta Tester, I'm a USER of Salamander.

You are supposed to be the betatester, if you are using the time-limited betaversion of the SS. If you are the regular user, then you should stay using the 2.0 version until the 2.5 release version will come out.

[KNUT]

All in all I'm happy with Salamander. [...]I never had problems with the beta versions.

But I think it is time now to take a look at other File Managers.

I think this is the wrong conclusion!!

[merlin]

All in all I'm happy with Salamander. [...]I never had problems with the beta versions.

But I think it is time now to take a look at other File Managers.

I think this is the wrong conclusion!!

This is A VERY RIGHT CONCLUSION. I am struggeling with Servant Salamander for exactly the same reason. At home I'm fine to be beta user but at work I NEED to be official user. To be able to do that I need:
- purchased license
- no beta (company will never buy beta product)
- FTP support (2.0 is not an option)

I've been fan of SS/Altap since first version of SS came to the world, always happy to help, give feedback etc, but honestly what Altap is doing is unbelievable - if you look on last 3 years (or how long they are developing 2.5) what did they did except FTP? NOTHING!!! Releasing new versions where the only changes are new icons, web forum and other stupid things. To be really honest, this is killing Servant Salamander and whole Altap. As you can see from feedbacks normal users do not care about your betas - they install it only because they cannot use 2.0 (FTP) and developers force them to reinstall every 3 months - whoever you asked (talking about normal users) the answer will be - I don't care about small bugfixes because I've never ever experienced them since I am not doing those "special cases things" where you can experience them and by normal use you won't experience any of them.

2.5 could have already been relased approx. 2 years ago if Altap wouldn't loose time on non important things, focused on FTP and final release, then you could have played with what you are doing now and everybody would be happy...

So, Altap guys, PLEASE stop playing and release final 2.5 - you are loosing thousands users every day (yes, there is competition). Be aware that business users cannot officially install your betas on their computers!!! You can play with nonreal bugfixes if this is really what you like, but release 2.5. As programmers you should know that something like SW without bugs does not exists and if your goal would be to fix all bugs you would never release final version.

Your answer is always "we have only few (1-2) people to do the job" but honestly - do you think that with this approach the situation will become beter? No way! You are loosing customers instead of getting them. Today it is extremely difficult to get new ones and those who will switch to Total Commander or other will never come back. So focuse on REAL things - final release => more registered users => more money => more developers instead of killing yourself.

I'm sorry for a bit angry post but this is what I really feel - I always loved SS and I would never think that I will realistically think about switching to another File Manager, but now my patience is almost over...

[Jan Rysavy]

Before the final version 2.5 will be released, we must:

1) finish support for language translation (there is a good progress)
2) update documentation (help system)
3) update our internal database system

In the meantime we must sell Servant Salamander and support SS registered and unregistered users (forum, emails, phone).

Please stay with version 2.0 and some decent FTP client until the final version 2.5 will be released, or switch to another product.