"At Corel we continually monitor the sales performances of our products to ensure we capitalize on market trends and opportunities," Meredith Dundas, Corel's communications manager, told MacCentral. "Through our research we have found that sales for Corel Bryce 5 are strongest with Windows customers, particularly at retail. As a result we have chosen to focus our efforts on Bryce 5 for Windows."
Bryce was first developed on a Mac by Eric Wenger. Version 1 shipped nearly 9 years ago (!) in summer of 1994. It didn't get ported to Windows until over two years later, at the end of 1996. (Bryce 2 Mac shipped spring of '96). Bryce 3 was developed from a common code base for both platforms, as were versions 4 and 5.
Microsoft sold its big block of Corel stock to an outfit called Vector CC Holdings LLC . Tho there's been discussions of a possible takeover of Corel by Vector, nothing has yet come of it. But is this decision to drop the Mac driven by the new major shareholder? I dunno. It may be one of those heartless, bottom-line decisions based purely on numbers and installed base. Corporate accounting departments, even at software companies, do not care much for loyalty to the oldest installed base of a software product.
It's all very sad. But since MetaCreations' decision to divest their graphic products and chase the dot-com thang, it's been a bumpy ride following Bryce's fortunes. This is just another sad part in a long (declining?) ride.
I remember watching as Quark bought mTropolis (a multi-media authoring tool) and then after shipping 2.0, closing up shop. I became acquainted with mTropolis since it dealt intelligently with QTVR movies (which I was writing an introductory book about at the time). I read the email list as it became clear that the software was being set adrift by its owner.
Is there a software graveyard somewhere? Where people who've done good, satisfying work with a tool come and lay virtual flowers at the feet of the software executibles that no longer work or are supported?
(Hmm. funny, this linking of Quark and Bryce in the same post. Word is that when Quark finally ships a version for OS X, there'll be a rush to upgrade to OS X. Just as that's about to happen, Corel calls it quits for Bryce on MacOS, even tho the proudly set Bryce at the forefront of MacOS X offerings)
When a company stops developing on software, they should release the source-code to the public domain.
In Corel's case, that's about two or three years overdue.
Don
Posted by: Donald W. Larson | June 02, 2003 at 10:54 AM
I read on the ui software board that eric is working on a new landscaping program. the pictures look real promising. so, perfect timing I guess. besides, nothing really new or cool has been added to bryce since metacreations let go of it. perhaps it's had it's day.
BTW, what is kai krouse doing these days?
josh
www.fakehead.com
Posted by: neoverse | June 06, 2003 at 10:09 AM