XYplorer offers 50% competitive discount for Directory Opus users

[DonL]

You are a frustrated Directory Opus user who has been fed too much bloat for too much money for too many years? Well, switch to a better application, the one where the action is, the one where modern file management is defined, the one that professionals use: XYplorer.

Now is a good time to switch: For the rest of 2013, you can get the XYplorer Lifetime License Pro for 50% off if you are a Directory Opus user. You pay only US$ 39.97 instead of US$ 79.95!

How to get the competitive discount? Read on here: http://www.xyplorer.com/fromDOtoXY.php

cheers and happy holidays,
Don

[Ennovy]

You are a frustrated Directory Opus user who has been fed too much bloat for too much money for too many years?

Thanks, but no thanks.
I totally disagree!

I am a very, very happy Directory Opus user for many years now and I intend to keep it that way!

[Josh]

Just my two cents here, but I find this advertisement in very poor taste. Rather than focusing on the strengths of your product, you have chosen to bad mouth another. You also throw in vague comments about what the "professionals use", or "Where the action is". This does not tell me anything about the product and sounds like marketing propaganda. It is akin, in my eyes, to the use of the phrase "Free download", when the product still costs money.

I would have much rather had a table displayed exhibiting where XYplorer excels in areas that DOpus lacks. As an avid software fan, I am always looking for tools that help me be more productive. This ad tells me nothing other than the fact that you are offering a 50% discount to switch. I see no mention of WHY I should switch given an already existing investment in another tool.

[wraith808]

While I do think it could have been phrased a bit better, i.e. If you are a Directory Opus user, give XYExplorer a try and take the switch test, or something along those lines, I don't see anything inherently wrong or in poor taste with the offer.

[Shades]

You are a frustrated Directory Opus user who has been fed too much bloat for too much money for too many years? Well, switch to a better application, the one where the action is, ...

GP Soft came last week or so with a beta of Directory Opus v11...so there is quite some action going on there as well. 

I do believe that XYplorer is a very adequate solution for people that cannot get their head around DOpus and/or think that the DOpus asking price is too high (the word 'expensive' is not used deliberately). I tried XYplorer several times in different incarnations, but I always keep returning to DO. Call me spoiled or whatever.

[Innuendo]

You are a frustrated Directory Opus user who has been fed too much bloat for too much money for too many years?

I also find this advertisement to be in very poor taste...and extremely inaccurate. Just a couple of the reasons why I use Directory Opus instead of XYPlorer is because XYPlorer doesn't have half the features Directory Opus does and when I was seriously looking at making XYPlorer my file manager of choice I posted a feature suggestion on the forum and I was quickly told by the author and numerous users on the forum it was never going to ever happen (and some were quite rude about it).

My personal interpretation of your question is "You are a frustrated Ferrari owner who has been fed too much speed for too much money for too many years? Well, switch to a Fiat 500 today."

This ploy is in similar taste to those gawd-aful "I'm a Mac vs. I'm a PC" commercials.

Sorry, my experience in your user forum soured me on XYPlorer years ago and this 'stunt' doesn't sweeten me on your product one bit.

Edited to add: It also irritates me that we tend to only see DonL around here when he's looking to hawk his goods.

[Innuendo]

GP Soft came last week or so with a beta of Directory Opus v11...so there is quite some action going on there as well. 

I've been using the Directory Opus v11 beta for a few days now & it looks like it's going to be a day one purchase for me when it is released. I wasn't a fan of Directory Opus in the past, but v10 really won me over and v11 shows they haven't run out of ideas yet.

[cyberdiva]

I have been a Directory Opus user for several years, and although I am happy with it, I still find it a bit overwhelming. It's not impossible that I might have been tempted by a special offer from XYplorer, but not by this offer. I agree with Josh: the offer says next to nothing about what XYplorer would give me that DOpus does not.  The tone of the ad, too, turns me off.  

[wraith808]

Edited to add: It also irritates me that we tend to only see DonL around here when he's looking to hawk his goods.

I would personally ask that people are careful with statements like this.  Trying to get discounts for the community, one of the selling points is the ability to reach many potential customers.  Statements like this make it harder than it already is to secure discounts.  Civility and welcome whenever anyone comes to the forums would seem to make the community more welcoming, and the attraction of helping the community much more inviting.  And while DonL has not been active in the everyday community, he has been an active supporter.  Piling on doesn't seem to be in the vein of this community, IMO.

[superboyac]

Edited to add: It also irritates me that we tend to only see DonL around here when he's looking to hawk his goods.

I would personally ask that people are careful with statements like this.  Trying to get discounts for the community, one of the selling points is the ability to reach many potential customers.  Statements like this make it harder than it already is to secure discounts.  Civility and welcome whenever anyone comes to the forums would seem to make the community more welcoming, and the attraction of helping the community much more inviting.

I like DonL.  He has excellent customer support and from what I've seen has always been pretty friendly and honest.  I don't blame him for doing some marketing like this, it's pretty harmless.  I use both Dopus and XYplorer, and I'm not offended, lol!  Let's have a little friendly competition.  If MMA fighters can hug after fights, so can developers.     

[Josh]

Please note that this was not an attack on the product, merely the way it is advertised. If I see an ad, I want to know what the product can do. If you are trying to get me to invest extra money, when I have a solution already in place that works, you have to tell me WHY and not light me up with marketing propaganda. I want to know what this product excels at, per the author's view, that DOpus lacks. I only see an attack on "bloat" which I personally do not experience with DOpus.

Price is really the only negative for me with regards to DOpus. I am looking to see how much I will have to pay to upgrade when it comes time for DOpus 11, having just purchased v10 in April of this year, which was a very significant purchase. So yes, I want to see feature comparisons and not statements which basically associate myself as not being a "professional user" simply because I do not use XYplorer. That statement, in and of itself, is actually kind of insulting.

[wraith808]

That's pretty standard marketing speak.  That said, that's my opinion, and you have yours.  The ability to let the developer know about these things is one of the cool things with interacting with them.  But the method of interaction and the tone of it will have further implications- positive and negative, so lets keep that in mind is my request.

[Josh]

Fully concur. If I come across as attacking, it is not my intent, merely my personal take on the ad. I would like to see that page changed to include the comparison I mention above.

[mouser]

I do think we should strongly discourage developers from making negative statements about competing products. It's just not not our style here.

[Curt]

You are a frustrated Directory Opus user who has been fed too much bloat for too much money for too many years?

I find the quoted advertisement to be both rude and accurate. Just one reason why I don't use Directory Opus instead of Explorer is because, DOpus doesn't offer any feature that I would need, that my amplified Explorer doesn't. I have a lifetime key for XYplorer, and a key for DOpus version 10, (I don't have any the two programs installed), and now you tell me that my expensive DOpus already is about to be obsolete?! I am not a professional, and have not yet figured out how to use the DOpus that I have, so I will not be upgrading.

Just like "you" I will like to see DonL visiting our forum some more, but at least he is active, and normally he is not this rude. I don't remember anyone from gpsoft ever visiting us. Do you?

[wraith808]

I do think we should strongly discourage developers from making negative statements about competing products. It's just not not our style here.

I can get onboard with that... especially with our other experience with developer slap fight over text substitution (don't want to mention product names or we'll summon them)

[cyberdiva]

Just like "you" I will like to see DonL visiting our forum some more, but at least he is active, and normally he is not this rude. I don't remember anyone from gpsoft ever visiting us. Do you?

I don't know whether Leo (username on this forum is Nudel) officially works for gpsoft; he's an amazing presence on their forums, and he participates from time to time on the Donation Code forums as well.

[DonL]

I agree it's nasty. And it's certainly not my style. It's the first time I did this in 16 years. But, what you probably don't know, this little campaign is running at least since September 2013:

Remove the animal to make the link work: http://<kangaroo>www.gpsoft.com.au/dscripts/compupgrade.asp

Tit for tat, as they say.

[Dormouse]

Tit for tat, as they say.

Don,

I agree it is tit for tat in principle - but not on this site. I would have preferred to have our attention drawn to the DOpus campaign together with your response.

I own, like and use XY and DO (and also regularly like and use Q-Dir). I would be surprised if many purchasers of DO think it is bloated because I would have expected users who didn't need that range of features to be put off by the price which is massively higher than all(?) the competition.

All that said, I fully support your fight back against that very targeted crossgrade campaign.

[Tuxman]

But GP is right, there is no 64-bit XY ... 

[tomos]

I agree it's nasty. And it's certainly not my style. It's the first time I did this in 16 years. But, what you probably don't know, this little campaign is running at least since September 2013:

Remove the animal to make the link work: http://<kangaroo>www.gpsoft.com.au/dscripts/compupgrade.asp

Tit for tat, as they say.

That explains a lot.

You have a great file manager. In ways I prefer it to Dopus -- I prefer Dopus in other ways. I use both. I'm not forced to choose, but I do always think twice about upgrading Dopus due to the upgrade pricing. I think it's fair enough to offer a whatchamacallit 'cross-over upgrade' from Dopus to XY.
But abusing it publicly is just bad publicity for you (unless you believe that any publicity is good publicity).

[CWuestefeld]

Setting aside political and style complaints....

I used DOpus for about a year, maybe 5-6 years ago. I found it a robust and full-featured product -- up until the time I got socked with a high-priced upgrade notice.

After a bit of searching, I found XYplorer. The price is far more reasonable (especially the lifetime license, if it's still offered), and the functionality is top-notch. I've said before that I think the DO design is more elegant, but that and a buck still just gets you a cup of coffee.

Initially there were a few features I missed (like real breadcrumbs), but there is constant improvement (really fast over the past few months), so there's no deficiency that I see in XYplorer.

Bottom line: I recommend it.

[wraith808]

That does explain a lot.  However, sometimes it's better to take the high road.  And the members here definitely appreciate when a developer does in the face of aggression towards them.  We've been in the middle of some pretty nasty developer slap-fights, so that's the reason for the response.  Just as I was advising the members here that responses make a difference in the paths of communication both now and in the future, I'd caution you with the same words, for many didn't know about it (myself included) and many did take exception.

Food for thought.

[teppups]

I don't find anything wrong with either campaign myself. Presumably both these programs are operated as a business, and businesses targeting the clients of their competitors is certainly nothing new at all. I don't know why anyone is surprised or expects some sort of moral high ground from DonL (or the other side for that matter). It's like saying Pepsi shouldn't be targeting Coke drinkers, they should rise above it all. They're in competition people!

Having said that, the linked-to Opus campaign at least does provide some technical reasons why someone might want to switch. And it's not just targeting XYPlorer, Powerdesk is also targeted. Their campaign has a clear focus and while it's written as tongue-in-cheek it does actually provide some evidence for its claims.

By comparison the XYPlorer campaign feels like an angry child stamping its foot. No technical reasons are given for why you might want to switch beyond some unspecified phenomenon called "bloat". There's no evidence provided for any of the claims it makes. And reading the ad-hominem and borderline racist comments in this thread on the XYPlorer forum makes me think they actually have no technical arguments to make to counter the claims that Opus makes.

Just some food for thought!

[tomos]

^you start very diplomatically (good disguise) but that is a very dubious first post


Oh yeah - just btw - I didnt see anyone objecting to the idea of offering an 'upgrade' to a competitor's product.