Encoder price too high (was: Zend hit)

"Uioreanu Calin" <udmsromkt@mail.dntcj.ro> wrote in message > Hello, > > What do you think about Zend position? I thought I would reply to the list on this one, basically to see if I am in the minority (and if so, I will shut up!)... Firstly, many people who use PHP do so to make money - I know I do! Therefore, I don't see anything wrong with the guys at Zend developing products that make my life easier, make PHP a better product and they can get paid for doing so. However, although I have said the above, I do feel that the price points that have been chosen are very disapointing, especially for the Encoder Unlimited which is priced at $6000. The guys at Zend have raised expectations for their products since they launched their site and I have been looking forward to the Encoder (as it is now called) for most of that time. I can only think that it is the much larger companies that can afford this kind of price and I now feel that I cannot have a "feature" that I had been waiting to use for some time. Cold Fusion has a method of encryting it's code, and it comes like that out of the box (and at a much cheaper price). What the guys at Zend are basically saying is that if you want to use the better product (ie PHP) and want the encryption functionality found in products like Cold Fusion, then you are going to have to pay handsomely for it! I would definitely have paid $1000 for the Unlimited Encoder, but no more than that. What does everyone else think? Am I being unfair here in my assessment? I know that there has been an argument on the Zend site that "until 2 days ago, you were happy using PHP", but I disagree with that because I've been waiting so long for the Encoder knowing I needed it, and delaying on releasing a couple of low-cost ($20 each) apps until it was ready Finally, is there anything else out there either a) in the open source community or b) commercially available at a more sensible price? If not, are there people on this list who could band together to develop something that competes against it? Any replies always appreciated :) Ade