Best I can tell, Lame Duck giveaway may not have been the best thing for Codeweavers. I haven't been on the forum before their "Lame Duck" giveaway, so I don't know how helpful or responsive the representatives of the company were to their paid customers previously. But, i can say from my experience since I tried the "free" program, that receiving help to get the program to "work" has been a very frustrating experience. Maybe I haven't used the correct channels or worded questions right... but still, one would think that there would at least be some direction given as per links, documentation, rtfm, whatever. Nothing. No reply. And, my questions pertain to major popular windows programs (Quicken and Photoshop), not some obscure program.
I've since channeled my time into converting my Quicken files into another program that will run natively on Linux.
Sad thing for Codeweavers is; (in my opinion) potential clients will give their program a try (with the generous free giveaway), and if it doesn't work "out of the box", most will delete it from their computer. And, If they see references to the program in the future, will remember that they tried it, had a bad experience, and won't give it another shot. That is a permanently lost customer for Codeweaver.
Some potential users will put more effort into getting the program to work, and will actually read manuals, posts, tickets.. etc. I am one of those users. Though I can't say I've exhausted the potential resources that might be out there, I am very discouraged by the lack of discourse or rather, the selective discourse that I see on the forums from the associates of codeweavers. I see so many reasonable questions being asked.. that just sit there unanswered and eventually buried.
I am aware, of course, of the terrible burden of work that has been brought upon Codeweavers by the software giveaway. I can't imagine the time and effort they are putting in now.. trying to keep everyone happy and update code. I'm sure I'm stating the obvious. But, my frustration compelled me to say something because I really do want this software to succeed.
As it is, I will pursue different avenues for my personal needs for the time being. I will check back for progress, and I wish Codeweavers the best of luck!
Harris
