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FileMaker Reportedly Lays Off 20 Employees Following Announcement of Bento Discontinuation
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What a pity....
I remember a heavy campaign for Bento in online and print media. Just as another poster had said, now theres is a limbo between the Bento offer and the full fledged FileMaker.
Good luck to the laid-off people....
I remember a heavy campaign for Bento in online and print media. Just as another poster had said, now theres is a limbo between the Bento offer and the full fledged FileMaker.
Good luck to the laid-off people....
It is a criminal travesty that I cannot find the proper ribbon for my smith corona in this day and age. Someone should sue.
OfficeMax has a nice selection of typewriter ribbons. Or check the Internet. I have no trouble finding ribbons for my Brother typewriter.
Last year I took my black MacBook (2006) into the Apple Store. The CPU fan shrieked like a banshee and the battery bulged out like a pregnant woman. I was expecting the Genius technician to tell me I was so out of luck since I have "vintage" system. Both the CPU fan and battery were replaced. Since the keyboard/trackpad cable got pinched and broke, that got replaced at no charge. I walked out of the Apple Store with an almost brand new laptop. The life of my MacBook got extended for another few years.
Alas, the MacBook has a 32-bit CPU and newer updates for my installed software now require a 64-bit CPU. Should Apple and the developers support 32-bit CPUs after 64-bit CPUs has become common? That would be nice. However, nothing prevents me from moving my data to a newer system. The new MacBook Air looks really nice for my needs.
Uh... I see where you're trying to go, but I think that you've missed the target by a bit. As others have pointed out, the company choosing to end a product does not instantly make all of their customers unable to run the software anymore. So, no, they are not "destroying" their customers ability to access their data. Over the years, I've visited and worked at many companies that keep legacy hardware around just to run a particular older piece of software that they don't have an update for.
Now, perhaps your could argue that companies should be required to provide some form of data export to prevent total data lock-in, but that's a different issue. If I have gigabytes of data in XYZ databases, and I'm told that XYZ is being discontinued, I now have something of a problem. If XYZ doesn't have a data export function, I now have to nursemaid my XYZ program along until such time as I can pay someone to manually transfer the data to a new database solution. Of course, even with data export, you face problems of how that data is exported. A simple database isn't too hard to represent as a text file, but what about a relational database? What if the database has external links? What about computation fields? Yes, all of these can be overcome on the export end, but then you have to have a new program that can read the export format, or you have to have a translation program that can convert the exported data into the right format to be imported into a new application. All around, not a simple issue.
Now, if you were to try to create laws to require companies to maintain programs, ad nausium, the result would be that the potential liability of creating a program would rapidly outrun the potential benefit, and we'd get a lot fewer programs being written.
On the other hand, cloud services and subscription software are two things that scare me, for precisely the kinds of reasons you touch on. That's the reason that I have no inclination toward any kind of cloud computing service, or using software on a subscription model.
This 1000000 times.
Also, bump up the feature set and bring back the tight OS integration (calendar, contacts, iPhoto) which they plan to phase out and have partly done already. Super stupid decision if you ask me by the way.
Also, I'm SURE AS HELL not going to upgrade to FileMaker now that they apparently couldn't even hold the by-product around and lay off 200 employees.
Sorry, but that is all but trustworthy in my books for an application that's supposed to store hundreds or thousands of database entries.
And I sure can think about more fun things than migrating databases, checking their integrity, losing uptime, losing features, trained workflows and all that.
Bento has been solid for big databases that even need contacts that link to your already existing OS X/iOS Address Book, which made this product a go-to solution even for small businesses and now they essentially drop those features in a product they don't even want to maintain anymore.
(Anyone telling me they still support it isn't thinking about what I'm thinking... Software that isn't sold anymore doesn't get NEAR the quality of support as software that's in active development)
Oh well, to cut a long story short, bye bye FileMaker for now.
That's gonna take some time to gain back that trust you just lost. Funny thing is I was even considering moving to FileMaker in the near future, but not anymore.
Glassed Silver:mac
So who pays for this?
I run a small game studio (PC and console). What if a new Windows update breaks my game and I've ceased trading because there was no money left. Do I have to quit another job I may have to go back and add support?
You get around this by selling licenses, not the software itself. The license covers the app/game for current hardware on a current operating system; or the one it was designed for.
Obviously it would be nice to support everything forever but it's just not possible apart from the super large corporations.
Always the answer is more government, more regulation, which we all end up paying for. Why not just know this can happen and adjust your behavior accordingly? Don't rely on cloud storage as your only storage; don't put your data in inaccessible proprietary formats if you don't want to.
If you have this concern, you address it. Don't make me and everyone else pay a little more just to alleviate your fears. We have enough government and regulation, thank you.
No data is lost
In case of Bento, data is stored in a sqlite db, so any tool that can read a sqlite db allow you to get your data back, export, ...
In case of Bento, data is stored in a sqlite db, so any tool that can read a sqlite db allow you to get your data back, export, ...
Never understood what Bento was for in the first place - well, I guess I wasn't the only one, then. Good riddance to an useless software.
I switched to makes in 2009. I did go back and try a Microsoft product and within the week I was clearly reminded of why I left MS. I was cursing, rebooting, and frustrated by this thing that would hang itself. I realised this was why I switched to Apple. And I'd forgotten how much Apple just worked. MS is a dog. Always has been.
Bento always seemed to me like something that Apple could probably have offered themselves as some kind of API that could interact with any CoreData application implements it (to declare which types of data it will share, how they can be used etc.), and for other applications that provide custom implementations for their own backing storage systems.
It could then allow them to simplify interaction with programs by making the API available to AppleScript (no need for apps to add specific AppleScript support), and could handle other data sharing features like getting access to Calendar and Contacts for example.
Erm I digressed a bit, but yeah Bento seemed more like something Apple should have been doing, rather than expecting developers to add support for a paid third party product.
It could then allow them to simplify interaction with programs by making the API available to AppleScript (no need for apps to add specific AppleScript support), and could handle other data sharing features like getting access to Calendar and Contacts for example.
Erm I digressed a bit, but yeah Bento seemed more like something Apple should have been doing, rather than expecting developers to add support for a paid third party product.
But there are no cars that go 0 to 60 in 4 seconds and get 40 MPG, please Mr. Fed make a law, 'cause then it will surely happen. (BTW, does anyone have John Delorean's phone number? My car won't start and I'll lose my family if I don't get back to 1955.)
re: Pros moving
Except I'm not quite sure how moving to Windows is working for people, this late in the game?
Microsoft keeps shoveling Windows 8 on people, despite total Windows 8 adoption rates hovering around the same percentages Vista had. A huge number of companies are still using Windows XP and it's over a decade old!
On the pro audio side of things, many people got the shaft in the Windows world when they moved to a 64-bit edition of Windows (which gradually became the "norm" as people expected their OS to recognize more than 4GB of RAM installed in a given PC). I know my M-Audio Firewire 410, for example, isn't working anymore for people using Windows 8 64-bit edition, and there are no plans for an updated driver.
I agree that the death of Bento isn't a good thing to hear, but we still don't know what will become of the code? As people said, it would make sense for Apple to purchase it and re-release it as part of a new iWork suite. What doesn't make sense is to just let the product die, when it has no real substitute and money could be made selling off the existing source code.
Except I'm not quite sure how moving to Windows is working for people, this late in the game?
Microsoft keeps shoveling Windows 8 on people, despite total Windows 8 adoption rates hovering around the same percentages Vista had. A huge number of companies are still using Windows XP and it's over a decade old!
On the pro audio side of things, many people got the shaft in the Windows world when they moved to a 64-bit edition of Windows (which gradually became the "norm" as people expected their OS to recognize more than 4GB of RAM installed in a given PC). I know my M-Audio Firewire 410, for example, isn't working anymore for people using Windows 8 64-bit edition, and there are no plans for an updated driver.
I agree that the death of Bento isn't a good thing to hear, but we still don't know what will become of the code? As people said, it would make sense for Apple to purchase it and re-release it as part of a new iWork suite. What doesn't make sense is to just let the product die, when it has no real substitute and money could be made selling off the existing source code.
Why would Apple buy it? Filemaker inc, the developer of Bento is a wholly owned subsidiary of Apple. There is no reason for them to ever buy it - they already own it. That and their lack of desire of putting it in iWork in the past makes me think that Apple has no interest whatsoever of including it in iWork ala Access in Office. The two products are miles in difference.
yet another example of Apple ignoring it's user base.
Bento lost the ability to integrate with address book and calendar properly in Mountain Lion, as they knew this was coming, so I doubt very much it will be rolled into iWorks, but who knows
personally this looks like the actions of a company that is no longer interested in the software/computer market and only interested in phones and or mass produced consumer products.
well....people want apple stuff because it's cool, when the creative industry no longer uses it, it wont be cool any more as they are the people that show Apple's brand off to the world....
they have shown how little they care when they dropped shake, they pretended they cared with a half hearted FCPX, not sure about logic, but the writing is on the wall for anything good Apple have been involved in...
let's call the Nokia Mk2 now.....
sorry for the rambling rant
Bento lost the ability to integrate with address book and calendar properly in Mountain Lion, as they knew this was coming, so I doubt very much it will be rolled into iWorks, but who knows
personally this looks like the actions of a company that is no longer interested in the software/computer market and only interested in phones and or mass produced consumer products.
well....people want apple stuff because it's cool, when the creative industry no longer uses it, it wont be cool any more as they are the people that show Apple's brand off to the world....
they have shown how little they care when they dropped shake, they pretended they cared with a half hearted FCPX, not sure about logic, but the writing is on the wall for anything good Apple have been involved in...
let's call the Nokia Mk2 now.....
sorry for the rambling rant
Say it's not so -- pleeze
I hope this is just a restructure. Bento is a solid product for those not needing the added features in FileMaker but savvy enough to customize into a necessary and kicking part of daily life.
I hope this is just a restructure. Bento is a solid product for those not needing the added features in FileMaker but savvy enough to customize into a necessary and kicking part of daily life.
Filemaker inc actually. Filemaker is run by it's own staff and they make their own decisions about products. The decision to discontinue Bento was a decision by Filemaker's management.
your telling me a wholly owned subsidiary of Apple makes it's own 'strategic' decisions..... wow your nieve.....
From what I understand, they are very autonomous - otherwise Apple would have integrated them officially long ago and it would have been Apple Filemaker.
Filemaker has it's own executive staff and from the looks of it, operates independently. Other than being a subsidiary and probably payroll, Apple keeps them separate.
Let me ask you this? Why would Apple get involved with killing an individual product at Filemaker when Filemaker has their own executive staff to do that. If Apple cared one iota about Bento, they would have taken ownership of it years ago. No, they left it under their subsidiary who killed it themselves.
They laid off 20 employees, which is bad, but less terrible than 200.
Bento will work as well on current hardware/software a year from now as it does now.
I tried Bento a few times, but it was never the right software for my particular needs. I can only imagine if a piece of software I used regularly was discontinued by the developer. It would suck, to be perfectly honest, and it's be a tremendous pain to move all that data to another program/platform.
I'm hopeful that a slightly different piece of software is developed, by Filemaker, Apple, or someone else, to fill the void. Maybe that software will fill your current/future needs, as well as mine. Only time will tell.
As for Filemaker, I don't think that cutting Bento will greatly affect the Filemaker products. Perhaps they wanted to refine their business focus on creating the best business-class database product they're able to. If that's their focus, Bento was something of an orphan product.
Which is precisely why I run VMs, so I can continue to run older software while still upgrading my hardware.