The End is Near for HomeSeer 1.7x

Rupp said:
The last thing I can say about this news is - It's their baby they can treat it as they choose. I'm sure this wasn't something they just posted in haste. They have a business to run and they can choose to run it as they please. Having said that, we can choose to stay or go as well.
Rupp,

You are absolutely correct. But I think HST is making a big mistake. No business can survive just on existing customers upgrading. They need sales to survive. All I can tell you as a non-biased outside observer is that I would *never* purchase this product and would stay far away from HST regardless of how good a product it may be or how 'nice' you and the rest of the HST team is. There are way too many business issues that are not just alienating current users, but steering prospective customers away as well. For the record, I do think HS is a nice product, but IMHO the company policies behind that product are going to sink it. Take this fwiw...
 
Rupp said:
Tried that Pod but they do not support Win2k any more....
Not trying to hijack the thread since we have discussed this in depth before, but you just gave a perfect example of why people are afraid of the HS2 licensing model. If HST closes or is offline for whatever reason, people cannot use the product they purchased.
 
Steve said:
All I can tell you as a non-biased outside observer is that I would *never* purchase this product and would stay far away from HST regardless...

Oops. This is begging for an edit.
 
Steve said:
Rupp said:
The last thing I can say about this news is - It's their baby they can treat it as they choose. I'm sure this wasn't something they just posted in haste. They have a business to run and they can choose to run it as they please. Having said that, we can choose to stay or go as well.
Rupp,

You are absolutely correct. But I think HST is making a big mistake. No business can survive just on existing customers upgrading. They need sales to survive. All I can tell you as a non-biased outside observer is that I would *never* purchase this product and would stay far away from HST regardless of how good a product it may be or how 'nice' you and the rest of the HST team is. There are way too many business issues that are not just alienating current users, but steering prospective customers away as well. For the record, I do think HS is a nice product, but IMHO the company policies behind that product are going to sink it. Take this fwiw...
Steve,
You could be right. I guess we'll just wait and see.
 
mwhistle said:
Steve said:
All I can tell you as a non-biased outside observer is that I would *never* purchase this product and would stay far away from HST regardless...

Oops. This is begging for an edit.
A bit of laughter is always good for a thread like this. ;)
 
WayneW said:
Rupp said:
Tried that Pod but they do not support Win2k any more....
Not trying to hijack the thread since we have discussed this in depth before, but you just gave a perfect example of why people are afraid of the HS2 licensing model. If HST closes or is offline for whatever reason, people cannot use the product they purchased.
You've got that right Wayne. If they close shop we can only hope that they give us permanent licenses that will carry us for a while. I thought that's what iVista did but they didn't. The same thing happened to me with Roxio and Street Atlas USA when I upgraded to XP. This is nothing new.
 
mwhistle said:
Steve said:
All I can tell you as a non-biased outside observer is that I would *never* purchase this product and would stay far away from HST regardless...

Oops. This is begging for an edit.
I'm sorry, that is my humble opinion. I have absolutely no disrespect toward any Homeseer user or Homeseer employee. I have been in the business world over 30 years working for both small and Fortune 50 companies and I just feel that HST makes some awful business decisions which would prevent me from ever purchasing one of their products and becoming a customer, and I'm sure I am not the only one to feel that way. Obviously current users will feel more tolerant and defensive because of their investment, but prospective customers like me will lean toward other products and business practices. Nothing personal or disrespectful and I am not telling anyone else what to do, its just *my* opinion so there is nothing worthy of an edit. I truly do wish HST success and with some changes to business practices I think they will be successful.
 
Rupp said:
The same thing happened to me with Roxio and Street Atlas USA when I upgraded to XP. This is nothing new.
It is new to me. Back when I was a user of those two products, they didn't require web or online licensing & activation. I am glad that I chose to switch to other superior products before I got put into that decision situation. I refuse to purchase software that doesn't give me control. It is sad when businesses adopt a model that hurts their paying customers.
 
I am glad BSR posted this, I was never sent an email about this, so I would have found out the hard way. It would be great if HST could put all 1.7 related stuff in a zip file, so people can burn it to CD and have a chance of restoring their home automation setup.

But organizations such as the "New York State Bridge Authority" are relying on Homeseer (according to their press release), are they upgrading a working install to 2.1? I live in NY, so I am concerned about this ;)
 
HST's attitude towards the whole 1.7x vs 2.x thing has been rather enligtening. Although I was never really in the market for HS, I was tempted a number of times. Not any more. Forcibly killing a product that people paid for and are perfectly happy with (especially when they're unhappy with or unable to use the new version without loss of functionality) is just plain bad. Even microsoft isn't that silly.
 
Steve said:
its just *my* opinion so there is nothing worthy of an edit.
Oh dear. I was referring to the phrase "non-biased." Didn't mean to infer your opinion needed any editing.

Sorry about that Steve.
 
I am relatively new to Home Automation, about 2 years. In my journey I've made mistakes that cost me money. I am always looking to better my system. I Started with Activehome, that lasted about a month. Then I went to Smarthome Manager, that lasted 2 months, then I went to Home Control Assistant, that only lasted about 6 months. All this time doing research on the HA stuff available. I spent a lot of time choosing hopefully my last control software. I went with Homeseer because of the community, the overall functionality of HS (had everything I could possibly want), I purchase 1.7 1 month before 2.0 was released. Then I went with Mainlobby because of the functionality and it seemed to by the best combination. I purchased ML a little less than a year ago, ver 2.86. Well there were no enhancements or fixes to that software until now. Version 3.0 is out for more $$.

I guess what I am getting at is Homeseer was built by the die hard DIY crowd. All of us helped HS to become a great program, so much so that alot of the "PRO" installers are taking notice and this is the market there going after. Yes HST is a business and needs to make money but you don't screw the people that helped make your product great. HST is not alone. Cinemar is doing this also. Once ML3 and MLS3 is officially released there will be no more support for the last version 2.86, which is buggy. I guess these are growing pains for companies like HST and Cinemar, but its just bad business to say F#$k you to the people that help build their products.

This is all putting a foul taste in my mouth about the whole HA industry. Well maybe not the whole industry. CQC looks like a great product. I just wish they had more in the way of automation, epically Insteon support. I'd buy in a minute if it met my needs.
 
TCassio said:
This is all putting a foul taste in my mouth about the whole HA industry. Well maybe not the whole industry. CQC looks like a great product. I just wish they had more in the way of automation, epically Insteon support. I'd buy in a minute if it met my needs.
It might if you combined it with an Elk ;)
 
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