On Aug 2, 2011, at 11:30 AM, Simon Slavin wrote:
>
> On 2 Aug 2011, at 4:16pm, Mike Reed wrote:
>
>> On Aug 2, 2011, at 11:08 AM, Simon Slavin wrote:
>>
>>>>
>>> Unless he's trying to write software, I don't see how a developer program is related to this. Lion is a launched product. Lion Server is a launched product. Neither is under development.
>>
>> Not true at all. Apple continually develops point releases and we all know there's additional functionality coming later in the year (e.g. the iCloud deployment that's publicly announced), and Mac Developer Program members get access to these pre-release builds as well as other developer and testing tools that aren't available to the general public or "free" developer members.
>
> Mike, that's silly. What you're saying is that any complaint about an existing product is invalid because the manufacture will always be working on the next version. Does this apply to other products or just to Apple's ? Boris' statement was about the version of Lion Server currently available.
I said nothing of the sort.
I simply said that rather than simply venting about a product you perceive to be bad, but care enough about to post on that product's mailing list, that you should likely avail yourself of the available resources to provide feedback, work with future builds, test to understand the impact of changes, and use additional tools the vendors provide to test with.
>> Every administrator of OS X servers should be a Mac Developer Program member if ONLY for the ability to test pre-release software before it hits Software Update. Unfortunately due to the program NDA, I can't be specific as to what's actually available (if anything) behind the paywall.
>
> You're saying that the $50 price of Lion Server has a hidden extra of $100 yearly membership, plus learning all the stuff you have to know to install pre-launch versions of the server software, which it says shouldn't be done on production servers anyway so you need to buy more hardware too. Sorry, but I don't think that's reasonable. Under those rules if I tell Sony my TV doesn't work it can replay "Oh you can get a beta-test firmware fix (which has other possible problems) if you join our developer programme for $100, but don't install it on a TV you expect to use for normal purposes ?".
I'm saying that the $50 price of Lion Server is completely independent of the $100 developer program membership that provides access to additional tools and information useful to folks who are responsible for administering OS X clients and servers.
If testing in your environment before deployment isn't reasonable and you simply install things into production based on release notes - especially those as sparse as Apple's - that griping about functionality/lack thereof and/or integration issues and challenges is silly because you simply didn't do the due diligence required to have otherwise avoided (or at least become aware of and planned to mitigate) such issues in the first place.
We're talking about a program that costs less than 3 cents a day and provides deeper access to technical information, a developer/tester community, and tools/builds of software to test with… along with bug reporting tools.
The cost of a small test environment would be the cost of a Mini in most cases. So perhaps $3/day - less than 40 cents an hour on an 8-hour day. If you pay your IT Admin $40/hr (80K/yr) then you're looking at 1% of your personnel cost. 1%.
How much does finding incompatibilities and functional differences cost you in terms or working them live in production? I'd predict more than 1%.
Simple cost analysis - not just responsible testing and management - dictate that this isn't silly… it's a solid business choice.
Oh, and you're getting an $50 SERVER! How much would that Windows server and licenses cost you? And how much does an MSDN or Technet subscription cost to do the SAME THING with competing platforms?
-- Mike
-- Mike
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