[godofwar2]

VB is making a big push to get customers to update to version 4. There's no option to renew to keep version 3.8.x updated. Customers with expired licenses can not renew to get important updates, like the 3.8.4 upgrade for compatibility with PHP 5.3.0. Some sites (hmmm, which could those be?) are so customized that the admins do not want to upgrade because it would take tons of work to make the plugins and templates compatible with VB4. So now those sites can not get updates for 3.8.x unless they upgrade to VB4, which they won't use and would have to pay $190 now or $250 in 2 weeks. Even allowing $60 renewals for 3.8.x only upgrades without the free VB4 Forum would be acceptable, but VB doesn't allow it! Isn't this a breach of contract? Did VB not say that they provide support for the most recent version and the prior version? Not letting users renew for the prior version is not really great support.... Anyone here a lawyer?

Users are right to be concerned about VB4 considering the big changes in developers and management that VB has had. Asking users to pay $130 (or $190 if expired) in 2 weeks without any demo and just 6 screenshots is ridiculous. This presale event was announced too early and without much thought.

VB took 5+ years to go from VB 3.0 to 3.8, but with the new license of free upgrades for 4.x, I really, seriously doubt that they'll take that long to convert to VB5 - and you're fooling yourself if you think otherwise. I'd say in 2 yrs, you'll see VB5 - that's still a 2X fee increase compared to annual renewals ($250 license vs. 2 x $60 renewal). I guess this is their way to fund the company and avoid the interest rate hikes that banks imposed on business loans due to the economic downturn.