[OT]? Nightmare scenario

I designed a product that used MS-DOS and the parallel printer port for data acquisition. My associate wrote a companion program in the old MS-DOS Visual Basic and he used a parallel port dongle for software protection. We sold about 120 of these systems at about $4000 each from 1994 to about 2004, by which time MSDOS compatible machines with real printer ports became rare, and customers were begging for a Windows compatible product. My associate had a policy of lifetime software maintenance and upgrades, but the switch to Windows required major changes of both software and hardware. He finally agreed that it would be OK to charge for the new package, but he dragged his heels about rewriting his software (and insisted on using ".NET"), while I soon made a Windows version using Borland Delphi, and a new PCB first with a serial port and then USB. When our customers pleaded with me to get them

something that would work on their new systems, and their calls went unanswered by my associate, I added his portion of the software (mostly database stuff) to my application, and offered the complete system for $3995, but with large discounts for beta testing, trade-in, and promo pricing. I've sold about 30 systems without even advertising. Meanwhile, my associate has not been heard from, and his website

for the last ten years reads "Please be patient while we work on an exciting new

product". My website shows the current pricing, and has a download for the latest software which runs in demo mode without the proprietary hardware:

My customers are mostly rural electric cooperatives and independent utility service companies, and they are very pleasant to deal with. I usually provide 24 hour phone service response and a flat rate of $100 for calibration and $100 for repair. I did charge extra when one of the Ortmasters was run over by a truck. But except for damaging the 25 pin D-sub connector, it still worked!

It's a bit more difficult for software-only vendors to keep selling new applications and upgrades. But usually they will add enough new features at a low-enough price that I'll go for it. In fact, I recently upgraded my PDF editing software from Nitro:

Paul