----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Rolf" Subject: Re: [PIC] MPLAB & ICD1 > There is no good reason to abandon products when the ONLY > requirement to keep them useful is a firmware update. I'm sure Microchip made a decision based on business realities. At some point, you make the decision that the cost of maintaining support exceeds the business losses caused by disaffected customers. Support for any product inside a company as large as Microchip isn't cheap. I'm sure that a firmware upgrade must cost tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of dollars. Continuing the baggage in future versions of MPLAB will cost even more. This is always the case, and will always be the case. I'm pretty annoyed that the old version of PageMaker that I have loved so long no longer works very well with the latest versions of Windows. The new product is not only expensive, but not the same product. It is big, complicated and cumbersome. Oh well, that's just the way it is. The time will come for ICD2, ICE2000, ICE4000, and on and on. When we buy a piece of hardware that is dependent on some manufacturer's software, or when we buy software that is dependent on some other piece of software, we have to expect this. We need to make our best estimate of the useful life based on the entire environment, and then recognize that we may not see the business drivers the same way as the supplier. And that's how it is ... --McD -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist