Cellar! announces no more development

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Cellar! announces no more development - 1/12/2010 4:59:23 PM

KeyMaster

Posts: 14
Joined: 7/27/2006
Status: offline

Hi there

As owner of Cellar! The Ultimate Wine Companion, a wine management software that's been there since 1995, I would like to praise Eric LeVine for building CellarTracker. I have to admit that although the current looks of CT are far from being as good as any Windows application can be (like Cellar! of course!), the important features are all there. But most of all, the new looks coming up soon are the real "competitor-killer" !

For a few months now, if not a few years, I've been struggling to find time to work on a brand new version of Cellar!, with features very similar to CT. So struggling in fact, that at some point it had a bad effect on my life with my family and my health too.

So, all things considered and although being a very difficult decision to make, I've decided to stop all development on Cellar!. You can read the announcement here: http://www.cellarwinesoftware.com/Team-Blog/important-announcement.html

What's important on that announcement, is that I highly recommend people to switch to CT when they're ready to do the move. That shows how much I do support Eric's system and the community you've created as CT users. I hope to become part of this community now.

Thanks Eric, thank you all!

Guy LaRochelle
Cellar! The Ultimate Wine Companion

Post #: 1

RE: Cellar! announces no more development - 1/12/2010 5:22:17 PM

brigcampbell

Posts: 2483
Joined: 2/16/2009
From: Mission Viejo, CA
Status: offline

Keymaster, welcome to CT!

As a former software developer, sorry to hear about your baby, I know how that feels.

But we look foward to your experience, insight, and support in making CT! even better.

BTW, there's a typo in the CellarTracker hyperlink on your announcement, doesnt link correctly. Oh, and hurry up and get those 1.9M bottles under management moved over here, I have a little wager on the total number of bottles under management by CT! at the end of 2010 and those will help greatly!

quote:

Effective today, January 12 2010, there will be no more development on the software Cellar! The Ultimate Wine Companion. Of course, support will continue for all users of the software, but there will be no more release of the software.
This has been a very difficult decision to take after all these years of building the software and believe us, it is very frustrating for us to come to this, but we are also realistic about our situations, the very little time we can spend working on any new release, and our competitors out there.

On that matter, if one day you come to decide to switch to a different wine management system, we would like to suggest and highly recommend you take a look at CellarTracker. We believe this is the very best solution currently available, with the best growth potential (no, Eric LeVine is not paying me to say this!). They even have a process for bulk importing specially designed on Cellar!'s Export to Access Database feature. If we ever come back with some kind of Windows application for wine management, it will definitely be to complement this excellent web-based system.

I would like to thank all the users who have supported us in the past and present. I'm sorry if we disappoint you and if you feel abandonned, you have the right to do so. However, please know that a part of us also feel the same about ourselves! Unfortunately, age, family, career and reality all have taken over our lives now.

Thanks!
Guy LaRochelle
Cellar! The Ultimate Wine Companion

< Message edited by brigcampbell -- 1/12/2010 5:28:14 PM >

_____________________________

Sincerely,

-brig campbell

(in reply to KeyMaster)

Post #: 2

RE: Cellar! announces no more development - 1/12/2010 6:11:14 PM

GalvezGuy

Posts: 5864
Joined: 5/10/2007
From: Galveston, TX
Status: offline

Guy,

I wish you well and it takes a lot of guts to admit what you did. Thank you for nice comments about CT, even though it is Eric's, a lot of us feel like it is ours too. Best of luck to you in any future endeavors. I am in the biz, so to speak, so I know some of your pain.

_____________________________

Burgundy makes you think of silly things; Bordeaux makes you talk about them; Champagne makes you do them.

(in reply to brigcampbell)

Post #: 3

RE: Cellar! announces no more development - 1/13/2010 1:17:27 AM

Eric

Posts: 17316
Joined: 10/10/2003
From: Seattle, WA
Status: offline

Guy, welcome.

As someone who prides himself on being a tenacious competitor, it is surprisingly bittersweet for me to read this. I can't even begin to imagine how hard it would be for you to reach this decision and write this, here of all places. I am especially sorry to hear of any stress/health/family challenges and wish you the very best and many easier days ahead.

You have made an amazing accomplishment over the past 15 years with Cellar!, now with close to 2 million bottles tracked. In a very crowded software category with dozens of desktop applications, I have always thought of Cellar! as the king of desktop wine tracking software. At some point I hope we end up in the same city and can share a meal and a few glasses.

Given the richness and maturity of Cellar!, I am sure I have a lot I could learn from you and that your list of requests for me will always be long. I hope I can serve you well.

Sincerely,
-Eric

_____________________________

Cheers!
-Eric LeVine

http://twitter.com/cellartracker
http://facebook.com/cellartracker

(in reply to GalvezGuy)

Post #: 4

RE: Cellar! announces no more development - 1/13/2010 3:05:18 AM

Colonel Lawrence

Posts: 7118
Joined: 4/24/2006
From: Arabia
Status: offline

I'm sure I speak for all of The Hide crew (CT in London) when I say that Alex (or is it Guy?) would be most welcome to visit if he's ever in London. He could swap war stories with those who also suffer the ravages of the market place, but more importantly drink some good wine, in some good company (if I say so myself).
Just post on any thread with CT London in the title.
And Eric I'm sure you could help to ensure that Cellar TUWC users have somewhere to go when they finally have to dispense with their valued tool of some 15 years.
Good luck to all.
L.

(in reply to Eric)

Post #: 5

RE: Cellar! announces no more development - 1/13/2010 3:07:22 AM

Colonel Lawrence

Posts: 7118
Joined: 4/24/2006
From: Arabia
Status: offline

............ and did a few others also have a palpatation when they read "Cellar! announces no more development"?
L.

(in reply to Colonel Lawrence)

Post #: 6

RE: Cellar! announces no more development - 1/13/2010 3:07:35 AM

Paul S

Posts: 3023
Joined: 1/15/2008
From: Singapore
Status: offline

Kudos to Keymaster for your post - it shows just a great amount of maturity and character. Let me join the others in raising a glass and warmly welcoming you to the community.

(in reply to Eric)

Post #: 7

RE: Cellar! announces no more development - 1/13/2010 3:32:50 AM

Eric

Posts: 17316
Joined: 10/10/2003
From: Seattle, WA
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: Colonel Lawrence

............ and did a few others also have a palpatation when they read "Cellar! announces no more development"?
L.

Cellar! versus CellarTracker!, yes quite similar but obviously different.

_____________________________

Cheers!
-Eric LeVine

http://twitter.com/cellartracker
http://facebook.com/cellartracker

(in reply to Colonel Lawrence)

Post #: 8

RE: Cellar! announces no more development - 1/13/2010 10:51:27 AM

ob2s

Posts: 1689
Joined: 1/30/2007
From: SW Portland Ore
Status: offline

I haven't used Cellar! but with 15 years of dev maturity and the fact win OS should support legacy apps, I would imagine it would still provide benefit to those who have it for a good while. Back in the early nineties I worked with a software developer from NH that wrote a messaging application that BMC or CA bought and went off to write a wine mgmt software app, because he didn't need to work....I had 12 bottles at the time, so I thought you have to be well off to need cellar mgmt software. I am actually not well off DUE to wine...

_____________________________

German Wine ? see GermanWines.us | water nourishes the body, wine nourishes the soul

(in reply to Eric)

Post #: 9

RE: Cellar! announces no more development - 1/13/2010 11:52:35 AM

KeyMaster

Posts: 14
Joined: 7/27/2006
Status: offline

Thank you very much to all of you for your support and nice words about Cellar!. I appreciate this.

It's also nice to fell welcomed in the CT community.

ob2s: yes, the current version of Cellar! still works pretty fine on XP, Vista and 7, both 16 and 64 bits versions. But it's more about the expectations that all users may have about getting a new version... that is hard to let down.

Eric: I look forward to meeting you someday, for sure. And yes, I will probably be asking for new features in the near future!

Colonel Lawrence, my wife and I really love London and we try to go there as often as we can. I'll give you a sign if we go back soon.

Anyway, thanks again!
Guy

(in reply to ob2s)

Post #: 10