Автор: Amigo
Дата: 05-11-10 00:10
Малко мнения от сайта на Thom Hogan:
Nikon is Not a Software Company
Oct 29 (update)--What I wrote below sure hit a nerve. Oh my did I get complaints about Nikon software in my In Box. Did you know, for example, that Nikon will disclaim support on any custom built computer? That's what one reader claims they were told. Given that many of the other emails I got were about crashes...oh, it much be the hardware's fault. Such a 1980's software company attitude that. Shame on you, Nikon.
Oct 28 (commentary)--Nikon is proving once again that they aren't a software company. The recent updates of View NX2, Capture NX2, and Camera Control Pro just reinforce this. It's not just about timing (late) or lack of 64-bit support. It's the little things that raise eyebrows.
For example, let's start with Camera Control Pro 2.8. The little things here start immediately upon pulling up the installer. Since Camera Control Pro no longer has an internal viewer, you'll need to also load View NX2. The installer says that in the splash screen and even has a button for the View NX2 installer, but it says nothing about whether there's an order dependency (there isn't, but it would be nice to know that up front). The buttons themselves are odd colors. The Install button is green, the other buttons initially black, which makes it look like Install is "selected." They change to silver when you roll over them, but the Install button is still green. Generally, you want one highlight color only so as not to confuse users: the Install button still looks like it is selected to some users, even when you rollover a different button, and that's because it has that different color.
Clicking on the Install button results in a 10 second plus delay on my Macs where nothing appears to be happening. It is, but you don't see it. Eventually you get an Activate Utility message. When you dismiss that, those of us upgrading an older version get a warning about updating. That dialog box is mislabled (says "Contact Us" instead of "Older Version Detected, What Would You Like to Do?"). From there things are more normal (but really 378 items to install?). Think things are still hunky-dory, once installed? Nope. Little things in the new version tell me that there's little quality control going on. "Movie" is spelt "Moive" in the Storage tab, for example. And why is the application so slow to respond to the mouse and buttons now? Seriously slow.
View NX2 2.0.3 has some of the same issues (long pause before seeing the "downloaded application" dialog). Curiously, the previous version found dialog is named "Question" in this updater. That's better than the Camera Control Pro dialog's name, but still not what a mature software developer would name the dialog. (Guess what, Capture NX2 2.2.6 gets it almost right: "Capture NX 2 Already Installed" is the dialog title.) So now we have a consistency problem to add to the others. Another small nit: View NX2 now installs Nikon Movie Editor and Nikon Transfer 2. Good installers tell you this up front, and really good installers give you the option of not installing additional components. Of course, they're not really additional components the way Nikon has designed their software, they're required components. That's almost the definition of bloatware. If I don't care to shoot and edit movies with my Nikon DSLRs, why am I wasting storage on my laptop's space-limited hard drive to install Nikon Movie Editor? (Think what the MacBook Air user wants.)
View versus View NX versus View NX2 is also a long sequence of "who moved my cheese?" Nikon seems to have no clear direction for the design of their software as far as I can tell. As I've written before, it appears that Lightroom gave them some ideas of how to reorganize the display (hey, Nikon discovered Panels; oh, wait, they didn't discover that Panels aren't always fixed in place in Adobe designs ;~). But overall, things just seem to get moved and renamed without a clear reason.
But the real controversy centers around Capture NX2. Nikon has again changed something about their digital rights management (DRM), and once again it seems to be catching a handful of updaters by surprise. If you're not running a tight firewall, you might not see it, but when you elect to update Capture NX2 2.2.6 is running an activation lookup to Nikon's server, which sends your serial number and looks to see how many times you've updated. Apparently either some people are exceeding Nikon's undocumented update limit, or Nikon tightened the limit. The limit is apparently there because of people passing around legitimate serial numbers. So, instead of the update going normally, you're hit with the illegal sale/distribution of software dialog that Nikon recently wrote about in their support system (Answer ID17027 in the NikonUSA knowledge base). To resolve that, you'll be contacting Nikon Technical Support and will have to convince them that you have a legitimate copy (everyone's keeping all their invoices when they buy anything with the Nikon name on it, right? ;~). At which point you'll probably get issued a new serial number.
Obviously, this is a pain if you run into it (I didn't). I've never been a big fan of complicated DRM systems, and I'm not sure that they actually work to prevent real theft of software any better than loose or no systems do. This argument started back in the 70's. I remember having a conversation with Seymour Rubenstein about DRM vis-a-vis WordStar (Seymour was the founder and owner of MicroPro, the producers of WordStar). Seymour's take was that you couldn't prevent illegal copying and that some of that illegal copying eventually led to sales that you wouldn't have otherwise gotten (usually at an update cycle back then, as we didn't have the Internet to provide instant access). My own experience with DRM in Silicon Valley was similar. Indeed, I'd say that all heavy-handed DRM does is increase your Customer Support costs. But all this just masks the real problem: Nikon's software costs too much, does too little, and is poorly updated and maintained. So adding tight DRM to the product just pisses the customer off even more when they get hit with it incorrectly.
One final bit: the View NX2 update installed Picture Control Utility and Nikon Message Center 2. Why does Capture NX2 install them, too? Are the installers not looking to see what was installed? Bottom line: Nikon is not a software company and it shows.
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