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Kermit 95 3.0 Preview

Frank da Cruz, Manager, the Kermit Project, Columbia University
This page last updated: Sat Dec 23 11:14:49 2006

Kermit 95 2.1.3 was released 21 January 2003. After that, there were personnel changes and reorganizations here that affected our ability to produce subsequent releases, explained HERE. Briefly, our Windows and security programmer, Jeff Altman, now has his own company, Secure Endpoints, which must be contracted in some manner to work on the Windows and security parts of Kermit 95, and arranging this through the Columbia University bureaucracy is, well, a challenge. I have been working on this more or less continuously since 2003. In the middle of this process, my organization, Columbia University Academic Information Systems, was taken out of its previous reporting structure, renamed to Columbia University Information Technology, and made to report to a completely new management, so I had to start all over again.

The new management wants to see clear evidence, or at least compelling indications, that any investment in a new K95 release will not only pay for itself, but also increase revenue from its current level for some period of years. An essential part of this convincing will be testimony and data from current or potential customers. How do you use Kermit now? How long do you expect to be using it? Would a new release with bug fixes affect your answer? How about new features? If you hold an individual license, would you pay (say) $25 for an upgrade to the new version? (Bulk license holders will not have to pay for upgrades because they already pay an annual maintenance fee for this.)


What Will Definitely Be in the Next Release

If we obtain approval to create a new K95 release at all, it will include the following:

Support for Windows 95, 98, ME, and NT, and for IBM OS/2, will be dropped.


What MIGHT Be in the Next Release

These depend on the amount of money we are allowed to spend with Secure Endpoints. This in turn will depend in part on the amount of support we receive from our customers or potential customers for each feature.


Let Us Hear From You

What else would you like to see in a new release? How important to you are some of the changes listed above? Please FILL OUT THE SURVEY and let us know. This project will not get off the ground unless we can demonstrate potential support for it in the marketplace. Please fill out the survey and send any other comments, suggestions, encouragement, or testimonials you can manage.

It is especially important to hear from companies or institutions where Kermit 95 plays a key (and perhaps "mission critical") role in their products or services or internal operation. If your organization is considering the purchase of a large license, but you need certain bugs fixed, or certain new features, or simply an assurrance that the product is still alive and actively supported and developed, please let us hear from you. The new administration has no awareness of our history, our place in the world, or the degree to which many organizations depend on our work.

Thanks.

Frank da Cruz
fdc@columbia.edu
Letter from Jeff Altman
23 December 2006


Kermit 95 / Columbia University / kermit@columbia.edu / 14 December 2006