Should I wait for Flare 4.0?

[enricosavazzi]

I am going to ask my boss to buy a single-user Flare license for me within hours/days. However, I saw somewhere in these forums that Flare v 4.0 will come out this summer (i.e., it could be any time now). If we buy v 3.1 now, is there a free upgrade to v 4.0 when it comes out, or should I instead hold on and wait until it does?

[helen]

Providing you have a maintenance upgrade you wil get Flare 4.0 when it is released: http://www.madcapsoftware.com/support/maintenance.aspx

Hope this helps

[Richard Ferrell]

Also if you purchase any Madcap Products and a new version is released within 30 days you will get the next version

[beagley]

Just an opinion here:

As with most things, I always say: Buy the program you need, and don't worry about the upgrades. I used to agonize that when I bought a computer, a faster one would come out a month later. And I was always right. If Flare 3 does what you need, buy it without regrets.

Some of the rumored updates that will be in Flare 4.0 are the inclusion of features introduced in Blaze. Check that out if you are curious.

Larger houses should definitely check out the maintenance option, as the above poster said.

[RamonS]

I can only recommend the maintenance plan even if you do not use support that often. But the big advantage with that plan is that you get any new versions released during the duration of the plan for the same price. And if I recall correctly (and MadCap please correct me if I'm wrong) you'd get the next major version anyway even when the maintenance plan ran out if it just happens so that during the maintenance plan cycle no major release came out. In other words, buying the maintenance plan pays for the next release at today's price. Plus, you get better support.
I've never seen anything like this from any other company. Just guess you'd buy XP and sign a one year contract and then get Vista for free....uhm, bad example.

[KevinDAmery]

As an example, we bought one copy of Flare with the Bronze maintenance package last year. That package (which cost app. $400) upgraded me from 2.0 to 2.5 then to 3.0 and to 3.1, with several smaller updates thrown in. All that plus on the handful of times I needed it I got excellent tech support thrown in. So I'd say it's definitely a good deal regardless of how large your shop is.

[doc_guy]

I'm another one-man show who would HIGHLY recommend a maintenance agreement. I've had great support, I've been able to resolve the problems I've encountered quickly, and I've had great access to the support staff. Plus free upgrades (less the price of the agreement, obviously). This is one item I insist be in my division's yearly budget. If nothing else, I gotta have my maintenance agreement. (Bronze has been sufficient for me).

[Richard Ferrell]

RamonS Said

And if I recall correctly (and MadCap please correct me if I'm wrong) you'd get the next major version anyway even when the maintenance plan ran out if it just happens so that during the maintenance plan cycle no major release came out.

This was the case for Mimic 2.0 Release, as it was released over 1 year after Mimic was released, so anyone who had support contact even if expired got the new version

[NorthEast]

Yep, the maintenance package is worth it just for the upgrades, given how frequently MadCap release new versions of Flare.

[Andrew]

I am going to ask my boss to buy a single-user Flare license for me within hours/days. However, I saw somewhere in these forums that Flare v 4.0 will come out this summer (i.e., it could be any time now). If we buy v 3.1 now, is there a free upgrade to v 4.0 when it comes out, or should I instead hold on and wait until it does?

While I agree that maintenance is extremely useful, regarding whether to wait for version 4:

According to MadCap, v4 will contain many or all of the features of Blaze. Take a look at the Blaze pre-release download, and take a look at Flare 3.1. If Blaze contains features that you'd find very useful in Flare, it may behoove you to wait for Flare v4 (assuming you cannot get a maintenance agreement). Blaze offers a lot of improvements in generating print documentation, so if that is a big concern for you, waiting may be a good idea.

Hope that helps,
Andrew

[doc_guy]

Of course, if you are maximizing your investment and have a bit of time to spare (since we don't know when Flare 4 will be released), you might wait for Flare 4, and then buy Flare 4 with maintenance, so you would get Flare 5 as your upgrade whenever that were to be released. Just a thought....

[KevinDAmery]

While Paul and Andrew make good points, I would recommend going ahead with the purchase, simply because any content you create in 3.1 will be usable in 4.0. There will be features in 4 that aren't in 3.1, true, and there may be ways of organizing documents that are opened up with the new version, but that doesn't mean you can't get started writing or importing topic content. If worst comes to worst and 4.0 is delayed, you wouldn't want to run into deadline trouble because you were trying to be efficient with your software purchases.

Buy what you need when you need it.

[trent the thief]

Buy what you need when you need it.

I second that. There's always a learning curve that you won't want to deal with when there's an approaching deadline. It's easy to get an upgrade once it's known how good your output is from Flare

[RamonS]

...and there is always an approaching deadline. So buying three months from now about as good timing as buying today.