Tuesday, January 31, 2012

xSQL Version Control discontinued

After a lot of pondering we decided to discontinue xSQL Version Control. Despite the majorly positive feedback we received from users every time we asked, the interest in the product was “lukewarm“. Therefore, instead of continuing the struggle to make the product financially viable we decided to “kill it”.

In theory, a decision like this should be easy to make but in reality those products we create are not simple, rational financial investments but a mix of financial and not so rational emotional investment. It is that emotional component of the investment the one that drives the outstanding support we provide so in that sense it is a crucial component in the success of the product. But, on the other hand it is exactly that component which “fogs” the reason and makes decisions like this very hard to make.

To our current users: we will continue to provide free email support for xSQL Version Control indefinitely but we will cease making any further changes to it.

Monday, January 30, 2012

xSQL Software gets a brand new look

Visitors to xSQL Software’s website today will be greeted by a brand new look – we have changed the logo and the whole website.

Why change the logo? We loved our logo from the day we approved it about 9 years ago and still love it just like one loves the toys he has grown up with. But, just like with the toys, there comes a time when you outgrow the logo and have to replace it. We felt that time for xSQL Software was now and that led to the creation and adaptation of this new beautiful logo that you see at the top of this blog.

Why a new web site? Well, again it is not that we did not like our old site, we think it looked great and it did its job very well.  However, we do realize that what was “trendy” 5 years ago, when we last revamped our site, looks a bit old and outdated today. We like clean, simple and to the point design and the new site has all three of those attributes. The time you spend on our site is an important parameter as far as search engine rankings go so the natural tendency would be to design a site in such a way that entices you to stay longer but we know that there are many more important things in your lives then reading about database tools. So, our goal was to give you the information you are looking for in the least amount of time possible and we believe we have achieved that with this new site.

New shorter url coming soon: when we first started about 9 years ago the xsql.com url was taken and we did not have the means to acquire it so we settled for x-sql.com. A couple of years later we decided that the dash in the url did not look very good so we ditched it and decided to go with the longer xsqlsoftware.com domain. Now, we have the name we have been longing for from the beginning and within the next month or so xsql.com will become the primary domain name for xSQL Software.  In fact as you will notice this blog is hosted under blog.xsql.com so we have began the transition.