.NET and what end-users think.

[owen]

Your opinion please!

Do end-users know, think they know, or even care, what .NET is.?

Do customers hear the word ".NET" and think its the latest thing and must
only have .NET applications, even though they've not a clue what it means?

IMHO the customer shouldnt really care as long as the product meets their
requirements it's none of their concern if it was written in VB.NET or VB6.

Owen

 

[phoenix]

Your opinion please!

Do end-users know, think they know, or even care, what .NET is.?

Do customers hear the word ".NET" and think its the latest thing and must
only have .NET applications, even though they've not a clue what it means?

IMHO the customer shouldnt really care as long as the product meets their
requirements it's none of their concern if it was written in VB.NET or

VB6.

They do care in terms of lifetime of the app. They want to stick to the
language which they can still use in 10 years (or at least the one they
think will still be available then)

 

[Herfried K. Wagner]

Hello,

Do end-users know, think they know, or even care, what
.NET is.?

I think they don't care about this.

Do customers hear the word ".NET" and think its the
latest thing and must only have .NET applications, even
though they've not a clue what it means?

If someone wants you to develop an application, he wants that the
application will still run in a couple of years. VB Classic is "old", VB
..NET "young"...

Regards,
Herfried K. Wagner

 

[Armin Zingler]

Your opinion please!

Do end-users know, think they know, or even care, what .NET is.?

Do customers hear the word ".NET" and think its the latest thing and
must only have .NET applications, even though they've not a clue what
it means?

IMHO the customer shouldnt really care as long as the product meets
their requirements it's none of their concern if it was written in
VB.NET or VB6.

Depends on the target group. I think, the usual consumer doesn't care at
all - as long as he doesn't have to download the Framework because it's
installed from CD. That's not based on a well-founded market analysis, just
my personal opinion.

 

[Herfried K. Wagner]

Hello,

Why would an app written in VB6 suddenly stop working?

It will not stop working. But there will be some features included in
future OS versions that cannot be accessed directly by VB. For example,
Windows XP Visual Styles don't work correclty with VB Classic (OK, you
can use various API calls to get them work as expected without reducing
usability).

Regards,
Herfried K. Wagner

 

[owen]

A releated question, how do users feel about having to install the .NET
Framework on their PCs? (assuming they dont have it already).

In particular I am thinking of large organisations where you have, say, 200
people using the product.

Owen

 

[Michael Giagnocavo [MVP]]

End users and customers are sometimes different. Many companies are
interested in using a technology that will have a longer lifespan.
"Average Joe" home user might not care or know.

-mike

 

[Vincent Wiegel]

Yes, they do care. Customers don't want to buy into something that is not
able to keep up with technology changes. They are very disappointed when
they are told, 'no to get that you have to upgrade or add these additional
packages'.

IMHO the customer shouldn't really care as long as the product meets their
requirements it's none of their concern if it was written in VB.NET or

VB6.

Requirements change all the time and the software needs the ability to keep
pace. There are those that follow the 'it does what I need for now' until
they need/want that other feature.

~V

 

[owen]

Yes, they do care. Customers don't want to buy into something that is not
able to keep up with technology changes. They are very disappointed when
they are told, 'no to get that you have to upgrade or add these additional
packages'.

Yeah but that has notihing to do with what language the program was written
in.

VB6.

Requirements change all the time and the software needs the ability to keep
pace. There are those that follow the 'it does what I need for now' until
they need/want that other feature.

Yeah but that has notihing to do with what language the program was written
in.

Owen

 

[Vincent Wiegel]

How many DOS programs or QuickBasic or GWBasic or ANSI C, Assembly, other
unknown languages I don't care to post??? If it doesn't support it
economically , timely or at all then it matters. I know we are talking about
more modern languages but I have written in languages that just don't
support certain features and customers steer toward other products unless
you can sell them on empty promises.

 

[Michael Giagnocavo [MVP]]

Well, some people don't like genetically enhanced food . The
customer and "end-user" can sometimes be different. Many corporate
customers will care. A small family at a home who got a computer for
Christmas might not understand nor care. Some developers like me do
care (I don't want to buy any devices running Java ).

-mike
MVP

 

[Paul Clement]

¤ Your opinion please!
¤
¤ Do end-users know, think they know, or even care, what .NET is.?
¤
¤ Do customers hear the word ".NET" and think its the latest thing and must
¤ only have .NET applications, even though they've not a clue what it means?
¤
¤ IMHO the customer shouldnt really care as long as the product meets their
¤ requirements it's none of their concern if it was written in VB.NET or VB6.

I'm going to disagree with most of the responses here. The end user should not care nor should
he/she be concerned what development tool was used. They typically are not technically qualified to
assess the significance of a development tool.

The only concern should be whether the application satisfies their requirements.


Paul ~~~ (e-mail address removed)
Microsoft MVP (Visual Basic)

 

[owen]

¤ Your opinion please!
¤
¤ Do end-users know, think they know, or even care, what .NET is.?
¤
¤ Do customers hear the word ".NET" and think its the latest thing and must
¤ only have .NET applications, even though they've not a clue what it means?
¤
¤ IMHO the customer shouldnt really care as long as the product meets their
¤ requirements it's none of their concern if it was written in VB.NET or VB6.

I'm going to disagree with most of the responses here. The end user should not care nor should
he/she be concerned what development tool was used. They typically are not technically qualified to
assess the significance of a development tool.

The only concern should be whether the application satisfies their

requirements.


I agree 100% with you, Paul.

Owen

 

[owen]

I agree 100% with you, Paul.

....and I suppose really me question was not so much, "should they care",
but, "DO they care?". I am trying to get some idea of whether its worth
wearing .NET like a badge on my apps when it comes to selling them.... I
want to know if end-users / customers have been brainwashed by the hype. ;o)

Owen

 

[Skip]

...and I suppose really me question was not so much, "should they care",
but, "DO they care?". I am trying to get some idea of whether its worth
wearing .NET like a badge on my apps when it comes to selling them.... I
want to know if end-users / customers have been brainwashed by the hype. ;o)

Owen

I think there are always those who think that 'newer is better' so if
you tell them that .NET is the latest thing, they will be impressed. I
should think too, that if vb.NET really is a RAD tool, the development
time should be reduced which might translate into reduced cost. That
is often appealing.


----------------------------

We contemplate eternity
Beneath the vast indifference of heaven

- Warren Zevon

 

[dfsdf]

They really don't work all that great with VS2003 either!

Application.EnableVisualStyles fails with Listview.

 

[Nak]

If you were a sales man you would use any significat points to sell your
application, it being written in .NET is one of them.

Nick.

 

[Nak]

It's like saying when you buy a peice of fruit you want to know what
farming

techniques weere used to grow it, before agreeing it's right for you.

Not meaning to split hairs but that's probably wasn't a very good example,
in this day and age people DO want to know where the apple comes from, and
what process it went through, the same goes for most products that people
buy. Basically we have the right, and allot have the interest to know.

As someone mentioned in this thread, only the technical people need know,
that's common sence, you tell anyone with no technical knowledge what .NET
is and they will look at you blankly, and say "Can I use windows with that?"
or some other badly phrased crap. That's the sorry fact of the matter, most
people purchasing computer related information don't understand what they
are buying, they just want to know that it is going to provide what they
want, and probably be the cheapest solution.

On the other hand, if the client is of a technical nature then an
application being written in .NET will probably be quite a big selling
point, and they could then go and have wet dreams about purchasing new
hardware to run the applications (with shiney .NET stickers on them) just
for the sake of modernising.

But then again, some people might just say it's all a load of bollocks!!

Nick.