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Re: SB vs. Wise

I could tell you, but then I would have to kill you ;-)

Re: SB vs. Wise

Is it true or not <bg>

Andrew

Re: SB vs. Wise

Originally Posted by Andrew McKay

I discussed this situation with a (former) InstallShield employee. He told me that InstallShield tried to take over the SetupBuilder product line, but that Friedrich Linder (the owner of Lindersoft, Inc.) did not sell his company.

Interesting insider information <g>

Re: SB vs. Wise

Well, I'll just buy SetupBuilder and use it for a few years until he sells the company to Computer Associates!

Re: SB vs. Wise

You won your bet, Andrew

Re: SB vs. Wise

By the way, Lindersoft technical support has always been world class. And I bet that emergency support is even available throughout the holiday season.

Andrew McKay

Re: SB vs. Wise

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Seems like same old story, huh? One company buys another, then kills their products or othewise ruins them, doesn't support them, etc.

I used to love the Stingray products. Then Rogue Wave bought them. They were just buying the revenue to get the stock price up. They didn't do anything with the product line. In fact, most of those guys went on to form Syncfusion (whose products don't seem as good as the old Stingray products, but guess that's another story...).

I absolutely agree. Macrovision bought InstallShield. A worse product just got even worst. Altiris bought Wise. The quality of a good product got worse and worse. Then Macrovision bought Zero G. Some good product disappeared, other good products still exist but technical support and license policy is a nightmare.

I discussed this situation with a (former) InstallShield employee. He told me that InstallShield tried to take over the SetupBuilder product line, but that Friedrich Linder (the owner of Lindersoft, Inc.) did not sell his company.

Result: a good product just got even better. Amazing...

Andrew McKay

Re: SB vs. Wise

Originally Posted by Andrew McKay

We moved from Wise 9 to SetupBuilder 5 because of problems, problems, problems with Altiris.

Seems like same old story, huh? One company buys another, then kills their products or othewise ruins them, doesn't support them, etc.

I used to love the Stingray products. Then Rogue Wave bought them. They were just buying the revenue to get the stock price up. They didn't do anything with the product line. In fact, most of those guys went on to form Syncfusion (whose products don't seem as good as the old Stingray products, but guess that's another story...).

Re: SB vs. Wise

We moved from Wise 9 to SetupBuilder 5 because of problems, problems, problems with Altiris.

Wise 9 (not maintained any longer) does not support 64-bit installations or the new XP look and feel. Some functions do not work on Windows XP, 2003 or Vista. Technical support (for all Wise products) is non-existing.

We evaluated InstallShield X. Our application size is 15 MB (200 files). The InstallShield setup.exe was 22 MB! The update process was a nightmare, binary patches where way too large. And the installer was very slow. InstallShield sucks.

Then we tested SetupBuilder 5. Wow - the same setup.exe was only 8 MB!!!!! The installer went so fast I thought it errored out. Binary patches are very small and fast. Technical Support: very fast and very competent. SetupBuilder 5 is a state-of-the-art installation product.

Andrew

Re: SB vs. Wise

OK, thanks for the feedback.

I was also a user of Wise Installation System 9, found it to be a great product, and for that reason first looked at Wise recently when I started to need something new for installing .NET apps. (I knew from previous experience to avoid Installshield).

I can see where SB might be a better choice, both on price and features. Wise got bought by another company and I read that some of their key people left. Also, they used to be the underdog with Installshield and had to try hard to win people over, now they have a better market position and maybe don't need to try so hard?

I'm leaning towards buying SB at this point.