pMachine announces ExpressionEngine, but what about pMachine?

Posted by Pierre Igot in: Blogging
February 10th, 2004 • 7:27 am

pMachine, the company that makes the blogging software that I use, has just announced their next-generation product called ExpressionEngine.

It sounds good, but… It’s going to be a significantly more expensive product ($199 vs $45!), and will require quite a bit of work for existing pMachine users who want to “upgrade” their blog, because the very architecture of the product is different. It’s not just a new version of pMachine, it’s a new product. It will include a tool to import the existing pMachine data, but all the template pages will have to be rebuilt from scratch.

So where does that leave existing pMachine users exactly? Well, the ExpressionEngine FAQ does say that pMachine (the company) will continue to support pMachine (the product) — but what does it mean in terms of new features? Will they be adding any significant ones to pMachine now that ExpressionEngine has become their high-end offering? Also, let’s not forget that pMachine is a very small company… I am not sure how much time the developer will be able to spend on pMachine Pro now that he has ExpressionEngine to worry about.

There are several things in ExpressionEngine that I am interested in: a category tree, customizable RSS feeds, etc. But at the same time the product will have a number of features that I don’t really need. Is there any hope that some of these features will be added to future versions of pMachine as well? I guess time will tell…

Still, the idea that, in a way, all of a sudden, a $45 product has become a $199 product leaves a bit of a sour taste… How do I know that pMachine is not going to pull the same trick in a few years and basically force me to switch from a $199 product to a $999 product?

In any case, I have no plans to upgrade to ExpressionEngine in the near future. It’s still in beta form and, while beta-testing a regular software application is no big deal, beta-testing a server-based solution is a different proposition altogether. And even once version 1.0 is out, there will probably be a number of kinks to be worked out. Then maybe we’ll have a clearer picture of where pMachine is going.


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