FileMaker Reportedly Lays Off 20 Employees Following Announcement of Bento Discontinuation

[hchung]

Yup!

We have a statement that they will release new versions of iWork for Mac and iOS in addition to iWork for iCloud in the Fall - and Bento is no more.

That either means - well, Bento is no more - or that Bento will become part of the iWork suite.

Weird way to think about it. I would think that an announcement that it would be unavailable would not be necessary if it's being rolled into something else, right?

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When companies drop software like this they destroy user access to their own user data. It should be illegal for a large company to do this and keep existing. Even in bankruptcy should not allow this. Continued support for the product is a liability that the company should be required to keep up with just like warranties and tax debt. If the company goes out of business then money from the sale of the company assets should be set aside to continue maintenance and the software/hardware should go into the public domain. The same holds for operating systems. Apple should not have been allowed to abandon MacOS Classic, PPC support, 68K support, etc. They can easily emulate all that - as they have proven - and they are so huge they should maintain those so that users can continue to access their data. Life lasts more than just five years. We need a Data Life Guarantee Law since companies are not willing to do this themselves.

This is unreasonable.
You know, discontinuing support doesn't mean you can't still use what you have. I know some people who are still use Windows XP and still try to install it on brand new hardware.

 

[coachingguy]

As has already been said, just because Bento's being dropped doesn't mean it'll cease to function on a specific day... If Bento is doing the job you need it to do today, it will still do that same job(s) after it's been dropped, assuming it's not added to iWork.

Coachingguy

 

[unplugme71]

Sales Engineer is a very common title throughout the entire software industry; it has nothing to do with Apple specifically.

In B2B software sales, the sales rep is responsible for (surprisingly enough) getting the sale. This means they're the main point of contact, getting the prospect the information they need, working on the sales contract and terms, working out a price and in general looking to understand what the customer truly needs on a business level, and so on. They're there to get the sale.

However, they're not expected to be technical. Sure, they may know the product fairly well at a high level, but not the details or specifics.

This is where the Sales Engineer comes in. They may not know the business specifics of the deal, but they understand the technical aspects extremely well. Typically, they demo the product for the customer and handle the technical questions about the product, and also understand the technical environment the product may be placed into. In addition, the Sales Engineer also takes feedback from demos and installations back to development for possible product fixes and enhancements.

Again, Sales Engineer is a well-known term in B2B software sales and has nothing to do with Apple; it's not a sketchy title in any way, nor does it imply that someone is trying to "engineer" the sale. If the product/customer is/are technical enough, yes, they'll also be engineers, but probably not for less technical products and situations.

A sales engineer is simply someone who demonstrates the software and answers any technical questions in a pre-sale environment. They differ from software or system engineers because they typically don't do any programming, development, etc.

 

[I.AM.USER]

by bento.... hello???

Well,

I'm sad to see Bento go!!!! In the Process of looking for alternatives right now...

Filemaker is too expensive for me.

 

[SILen(e]

Weird way to think about it. I would think that an announcement that it would be unavailable would not be necessary if it's being rolled into something else, right?

There have been rumors of the iWork suite (and iLife for iOS) becoming free with the release of iOS7/Mavericks.

Microsoft is giving away Office with Windows RT for free and Apple is making money by selling hardware, not software.
The more great apps they give away for free, the better the deal one gets when buying an iPad.

Discontinuing Bento could be seen as a way to stop sales of Bento without stating clearly that iWork and iLife will become free in fall.
Nobody wants to buy a 50$ software - much more expensive than other iWork apps - to hear a day later that it is now given away for free.

 

[Bsang]

Base (but not mean) Alternative

Your limit is 2.99 ?

I paid more for ZX81 cassettes !!!

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Or folks who haven't superglued their wallets shut

Can anyone recommend a comparable product if it doesn't end up being part of iWork?

I love Bento and am sad to see it go - it is an easy substitute for Quicken invoices when I couldn't afford upgrade prices.

Snarky comments about pinching pennies are not necessary. Frugality is not a vice. Furthermore, many people who were able to afford a Mac and expensive software months or years ago are experiencing hard times now. Some of us are working full-time, non-living wage jobs and are in collections for medical debt. If you've not experienced the hard reality of forgoing two-dollar, "frivolous" software because you have to get to work in a car running on fumes, then please be kind and thoughtful to folks who are less fortunate. If you've not worried from one month to the next if you'll lose precious internet service because you have to choose paying electric utility over DSL bills, then be thankful. If you have led a privileged or comfortable life all of your years by virtue of inherited wealth or well-paid hard work and you still don't get it, then you can work harder on not depleting your karma bank.

Yes, there is an alternative, but it's not as simple as Bento. Others may have already mentioned it in this thread, but it bears repeating. OpenOffice (now Apache OpenOffice) offers a free suite of software comparable to MS Office. They just came out with a major upgrade, Version 4.0. (Check user reviews to see if you want to test it or use an earlier, proven-stable version.) It has a database comparable to MS Access. Some Access users like Base, others go back to Access. YMMV. Base has a steep learning curve, but there are lots of templates (free or paid) out there for simple tasks that Bento does so easily for us. Converting Bento files to Base is possible, if not convenient. Search "Having a pseudo-database linked to the csv villeroy" for one how-to link.

YouTube videos should be coming out soon for the new version. There are already many tutorial videos for older versions that would help MS Office users and complete beginners of office-type software.

I highly recommend Apache OOo. (The small case "o" is for ".org".) I gave up on MS Office years ago rather than upgrade from the XP version after switching back to Mac. At first, I tried Pages but it couldn't handle the formatting work required for my projects. OOo Writer allows me to collaborate on consulting reports created on PC MS Word templates. (FWIW, it's the sporadic consulting jobs that keep my family under a roof.) It's also great for creating school projects and tracking data at my day job. I've decades experience using various spreadsheets for complicated work like chemical data input, dissemination, and graphical display, and Calc is just as powerful. Many of the tasks in Writer and Calc are intuitive if you've worked with MS Word and Excel.

Apache OpenOffice includes a presentation (Powerpoint-type) app. I prefer Keynote over Impress for simple jobs, but Impress is more powerful. OOo also has a drawing app, plus a mathematical equations app ("Math") for power users. I use my old apps rather than Draw, have had no need for Math, and have not looked at user reviews for either app.

If others here have used OpenOffice Base and other OpenOffice apps, please offer constructive criticism. I.e., if you hate it, give useful information to support your opinions rather than take flaming issue with mine.

Apache OOo is freeware. So if you try it, like it, and are not in dire financial straits, please donate to the cause. And if you can't donate now, you can always contribute by spreading the word.

 

[MRU]

Snarky comments about pinching pennies are not necessary. Frugality is not a vice.....

Clearly a sense of humour is in short supply too....

 

[50548]

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.

It's "its", not "it's"...

 

[daved4lolad]

Bento 4 and Bento 4 iPad

Hi. Do folks using iCloud realize that Apple routinely eliminates even PAID programs. OR: remember Appleworks databases and, more recently, iWeb and Bento??? Is anyone taking bets on how long before iCloud disappears???
Cleverly these mentioned programs have never yet been replaced by programs able to import the precious data entrusted to them by unsuspecting PAID CUSTOMERS.
If anyone knows of programs able to import any of the above mentioned programs into Mac OS 8.4+, please let us fools who trust Apple know.
Thanks bunches.
dave4lolad