Rocket's Acquisition of jBASE and OpenQM

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Dick Thiot

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Oct 14, 2021, 9:46:29 AM10/14/21
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I am curious how everyone feels now that Rocket has acquired jBASE, OpenQM, Accuterm, MVConnect, and MVDashboard from Zumasys.  I admit to being very surprised by this news as Paul Giobbi has promoted Zumasys as providing options in our marketplace to Rocket Software.  

Full disclosure, my company has been a reseller for both Rocket and Zumasys for some time and I have customers with products from both companies.  However, I am concerned that Rocket now has a large segment of the market without competition.
 
Does this benefit the likes of Reality or MVsharp in any way?

Steve Trimble

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Oct 14, 2021, 9:52:45 AM10/14/21
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I am with you Dick.
I did NOT see this coming for sure.
I have customers both on D3 and QM.
My favorite between the 2 is QM. Especially QM on Linux.
D3 on Linux is good too, but because of Martin and his unwavering support and knowledge, I suggest my customers go with QM. Of course the price has also been way up there on my customer's minds.
Most of my customers are smaller in terms of users too. Anywhere from 3 to 100 users.
They sold another of my favorites - AccuTerm. I've been an AccuTerm fan since DOS 3.0
I hope Rocket preserves the support and pricing of QM and AccuTerm.

Computerized Data Mgmt Inc
Steve Trimble
(501) 772-3450 cell / text


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Martyn

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Oct 14, 2021, 9:56:53 AM10/14/21
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I'll be honest and say that I did not see this coming.  I thought that Zumasys was investing in promoting MultiValue generally.  Thankfully, I remain on the fringe and dedicated to OpenInsight but it will be interesting to see how this move pans out for everyone.

geneb

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Oct 14, 2021, 10:02:33 AM10/14/21
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On Thu, 14 Oct 2021, Dick Thiot wrote:

> I am curious how everyone feels now that Rocket has acquired jBASE, OpenQM,
> Accuterm, MVConnect, and MVDashboard from Zumasys. I admit to being very
> surprised by this news as Paul Giobbi has promoted Zumasys as providing
> options in our marketplace to Rocket Software.
>

The biggest problem is that Bain Capital controls Rocket Software.
They've a long history of asset-stripping companies and leaving them in
debt up to their eyeballs.

g.


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geneb

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Oct 14, 2021, 10:04:07 AM10/14/21
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On Thu, 14 Oct 2021, Steve Trimble wrote:

> I hope Rocket preserves the support and pricing of QM and AccuTerm.
>

With Bain in the driver's seat? Not going to happen. It wouldn't shock
me at all to see $500+ per seat licenses for OpenQM within 12 months.

Andrew Cole

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Oct 14, 2021, 10:18:04 AM10/14/21
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I'm certainly not happy about it. We moved from Rocket (mvBase) to jBase in 2017 and have been so much happier. Zumasys, in my opinion, always did great trying to modernize the system. Constant updates, new features, better documentation. When we were at Rocket the documentation was horrible to navigate, updates were few and far between, and it just felt like our product was abandoned. Granted, mvBase was a super small product in comparison to d3 and Unidata/verse but they just let it wither on the vine. Told us for years that we're getting d3 ready so we can migrate you there and it eventually did happen but you could tell it wasn't a priority. 

Those experiences make me sad thinking that if jBase is one of their "smaller" systems that it'll get abandoned and jBase is far and away my favorite flavor of PICK.

Will Johnson

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Oct 14, 2021, 12:19:19 PM10/14/21
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I've just added this news to the Wikipedia article on Pick which is really the only article.

Having lived through 40 years of Pick earthquakes, here is the most likely thing that will occur.
Rocket: Hey you should really *upgrade* to our flagships products Universe on Windows....
Customer1: Sure thing, here's twenty million
Customer2: No we could not possibly afford that conversion cost.

..... three years later .....
Rocket announces the sale of all the remaining jBASE, and OpenQM customer contracts to.... Joe Schmo Industries based in Yonkers....

Donald Montaine

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Oct 14, 2021, 1:18:05 PM10/14/21
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Well, Zumasys had already raised the price of OpenQM by around 30% over the price before the acquisition from Ladybridge and raised the price of support by 10x.  My take is that they realized that there is no market for new multivalue licenses whereas there is a market for vertical solutions where the database that provides the solution is immaterial.  What money they were making came from migrating clients from Rocket products to jBase or OpenQM.  From Rocket's point of view, what a great acquisition!  They have probably destroyed any motivation to migrate as they will certainly not be promoting one of their products as a solution to problems with another one of their products.

What will be interesting is which employees will want to migrate with the products.  Will the creators of (for example) Accuterm and OpenQM find the same motivation and support for improving their products and being creative in the Rocket stable where those products are just one of many similar products and there is really no competitive advantage to making one product better than another?  Might they just decide to retire instead?

Will Johnson

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Oct 14, 2021, 2:45:28 PM10/14/21
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What is Rocket's product that is similar to Accuterm?

Mauricio Caneda

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Oct 14, 2021, 2:50:04 PM10/14/21
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wIntegrate


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Doug Averch

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Oct 15, 2021, 2:43:52 PM10/15/21
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I was not surprised by Rocket's acquisition. What I was surprised by is why it has taken so many years to buy their "competitors" since they bought D3/mvBase years ago.
The question becomes can Rocket Software support Universe/Unidata/D3/mvBase/QM/jBase database for the foreseeable future.
My guess is no since the engineering resources will be quite substantial since there is very little synergy or common code between all of these databases.
So the other question becomes when do they start dropping databases?

We, at U2logic, have developed tools for Universe/Unidata/D3/QM and now we only have to deal with a single vendor for any issues that come up.

Regards,
Doug

Cleber Vieira Baptista

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Oct 15, 2021, 4:52:16 PM10/15/21
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Hi,

Does anyone have the evolution of the price of QM licenses, since its launch until today?

Fair price, great support and continuity. These were the factors for some to migrate to QM. Today we are not sure about the continuity of the product, with fair prices, good support and continuity.

att.,
Cleber



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Cleber Vieira Baptista

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Oct 15, 2021, 4:58:37 PM10/15/21
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I think it's disrespectful to users of QM, Jbase and other products, not having any information on the company's website.https://www.rocketsoftware.com/.


Dick Thiot

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Oct 15, 2021, 5:28:01 PM10/15/21
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Donald Montaine

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Oct 16, 2021, 1:35:33 AM10/16/21
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Zumasys lists their staff on their website.  I copied all the names and titles the day the sale was announced.  I looked a the staff list today.  I assume it is OK to list these names as they are/were all listed on the Zumasys web site. Since the announcement of the purchase by Rocket indicated that more than a dozen Zumasys employees would be transitioning to Rocket, it may be safe to assume that most or all of these people are moving to support the MV products at Rocket.  As of today, the following people are no longer listed as employees at Zumasys.  

#Becky Cravens-Wait Software Development Manager
#Bruce Decker Enterprise Account Executive
#Dan Ell                 jBase Technical Engineer
#Evan Garcia Software Engineer II
#Greg Cooper Senior Database Architect
#Jill Orsini         Solutions Consultant Accuterm
#Joshua Foss Office & Marketing Coordinator
#Martin Phillips         Senior Database Architect
#Patrick Payne Chief Software Evangelist
#Mike Street         jBase Technical Support Engineer
#Peter Falson Multivalue Software Support Engineer
#Peter Schelienbach Director of Product Development
#Robert Burke Manager of Technical Support
#Ryan Modina UI/UX Software Engineer

Will Johnson

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Oct 16, 2021, 2:33:42 PM10/16/21
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Of those I'm fairly certain that the red-headed step-children are OpenQM and mvBase.  If these two *combined* are more than a hundred existing sites I would be surprised.

Andrew Cole

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Oct 18, 2021, 10:02:39 AM10/18/21
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It also looks like Zumasys is starting to remove documentation from the docs.zumasys.com site. I use that daily and nothing besides the press release is up on Rocket yet.

geneb

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Oct 18, 2021, 10:07:33 AM10/18/21
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On Mon, 18 Oct 2021, Andrew Cole wrote:

> It also looks like Zumasys is starting to remove documentation from the
> docs.zumasys.com site. I use that daily and nothing besides the press
> release is up on Rocket yet.
>
...and you can be guaranteed that the docs will be behind a paywall or
registerwall.

Steve Trimble

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Oct 18, 2021, 10:11:07 AM10/18/21
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Computerized Data Mgmt Inc
Steve Trimble
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Andrew Cole

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Oct 18, 2021, 10:41:49 AM10/18/21
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Actually d3 and mvBase docs are open to the public. I visit them when the jBASE docs are insufficient. The interface is from the early 2000's but they do work.

geneb

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Oct 18, 2021, 11:08:39 AM10/18/21
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On Mon, 18 Oct 2021, Andrew Cole wrote:

> Actually d3 and mvBase docs are open to the public. I visit them when the
> jBASE docs are insufficient. The interface is from the early 2000's but
> they do work.
>
Well that's nice to know.

Mike Wright

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Oct 18, 2021, 6:09:08 PM10/18/21
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I can confidently say we have not been removing anything from docs.zumasys.com. The only issues re: docs are on the OpenQM side and relate to some of the assets not being available over https (so you have to take care to fetch via http) but those issues also pre-date this activity.

On the docs.zumasys.com side I'd also remind that the repository that drives that site is completely open to the public, so in the event we were beginning to delete things you'd see all of that reflected in the commit history for the project. But rest assured, nothing is being deleted now, and nothing will be deleted until the related documentation is made available through some other channel.

MarZ

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Oct 19, 2021, 5:40:29 AM10/19/21
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Overall I’m not concerned as we use D3, though many times over the years I’ve wanted to get away from D3 and had considered QM but not having all the source meant keeping the status quo unchanged. Avenues such as MVsharp might be a way forward but I can’t be bothered these days. In part, that attitude is due to past promises not met and woeful pricing to just simply not having a feature set comparable to other dbs. On showing this change to a senior manger the response was “we better move off d3” and that process is under way now, though to be fair it was started earlier this year to replace the ERP.

Past experience has taught me to ignore the words & look to the changes. So talk about engagement with community and listening etc just seem hollow and the only truth is say whatever sounds good & illicit hope and repeat when necessary 

Andrew Cole

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Oct 19, 2021, 7:41:02 AM10/19/21
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@Mike

The docs are still there, my direct link to https://docs.zumasys.com/jbase/ still works but the menu on the left hand side is missing Accuterm, jBASE, and OpenQM (to be fair, I don't remember if OpenQM used to be there or not). I assumed this was a precursor to the direct link removal in the future. Either way, going to the docs and seeing the menu half the size it used to be was a little disconcerting.

Will Johnson

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Oct 19, 2021, 2:41:08 PM10/19/21
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Is D3 a system where you had direct contact to the database vendor?  or did you still go through a VAR of some kind?

Mike Wright

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Oct 19, 2021, 6:07:41 PM10/19/21
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Andrew:

Thank you, that was helpful! A sidebar menu change was pushed unintentionally and that has been reset. That was actually less related to the acquisition news and more related to the introduction of Rover docs to the Zumasys docs site--just an accidental carryover into production.

Apologies for that. If you spot any other specific oddities please don't hesitate to raise them to our attention. You can reach me at mikew AT zumasys DOT com as well if you'd like.

Mike

MarZ

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Oct 19, 2021, 11:05:29 PM10/19/21
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Going through a VAR... always got good support, only occasionally required passing to Rocket for resolution.
Some direct contact with the vendor, office based in Sydney, not really helpful or supportive. (e.g. hot-back server not being used, maintenance payments for it postponed, i tried to convert licenses at 4:1 onto production server so at least they would get extra annual payments, unfortunately too many unrelated conditions left management with no choice but to abandon it and stick with existing license count and then eventual decision to completely replace and move away from multi-value dbs or just Rocket)

Andrew Cole

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Oct 20, 2021, 7:42:23 AM10/20/21
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Mike, that's good to hear. Really unfortunate timing! haha

Will Johnson

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Oct 20, 2021, 1:47:27 PM10/20/21
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I feel your pain.

Eugene Klaus

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Oct 20, 2021, 1:56:16 PM10/20/21
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No, I have not direct contact with D3.

Respectfully,
Gene Klaus
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someone until you take a chance and let them prove you right or
wrong?“ <ErnestHemingway>
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Sean Clark

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Oct 27, 2021, 6:14:41 PM10/27/21
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Accuterm: Any idea what the status of the forum is? https://forum.asent.com is no longer responding, www.asent.com redirects to zumasys.com

Dick Thiot

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Oct 28, 2021, 8:40:12 AM10/28/21
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Sean,

Accuterm was purchased by Zumasys several years ago and I believe that the forum was discontinued in that same timeframe.  With the purchase of the Accuterm rights from Zumasys by Rocket Software, I am sure that they will be setting up something similar to what they have for their other products.  I suspect that may take them a little bit of time to organize.  The team associated with Accuterm, including Pete Schellenbach have transitioned over to Rocket.  In the meantime, this is probably a good place to post your questions.

Feel free to email me directly or just call me if you want to discuss this further.

Dick

Pete Schellenbach

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Oct 28, 2021, 2:34:35 PM10/28/21
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Hi Sean - in the transfer of the old asent.com domain to Rocket, something was messed up in the DNS for the forum. Its all fixed now and forum.asent.com should be alive and well.
Thanks, Pete

Sean Clark

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Oct 28, 2021, 4:07:33 PM10/28/21
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Dick, it had been working as recently as last week.
Pete, thanks for getting that straightened out. I can see the forum now.

Eugene Klaus

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Oct 28, 2021, 5:03:43 PM10/28/21
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Zumasys Sells jBASE, Accuterm, and MultiValue Tools to Rocket Software
Focuses on Expanding and Modernizing Its Application Portfolio

SAN CLEMENTE, CA – October 14, 2021 – Zumasys announced today that it
has sold its database and tools division to Rocket Software, a global
technology leader of enterprise software with 2,500+ employees. The
sale includes AccuTerm, jBASE, MVDashboard, MVConnect, and OpenQM and
officially marks a new era where all the major MultiValue databases
are back together under one roof.

Zumasys also announced that it has expanded its vertical market
software portfolio with the purchase of Key Data Systems Group.
Founded by Jeffrey Kaufman, Key Data is headquartered in Orinda,
California. Its flagship Foresite ERP software solution for wholesale
distributors runs on Rocket’s D3 database.

“Zumasys is pleased to announce the sale of our
‘database and tools’ division to Rocket Software.
We firmly believe that this is good for the market.”
– Paul Giobbi, President of Zumasys

“As a Rocket MultiValue Modernization Partner, Zumasys can now focus
all its energy on modernizing MultiValue applications, such as
Foresite. These apps are full of rich business logic, and we are
excited to unlock their full potential by adding new web-based
interfaces.”

Zumasys is leveraging over two decades of experience as a cloud
service provider and database platform company to transform itself
into a national application software provider. Since 2019, Zumasys has
acquired six independent software vendors (ISVs), including EAO
Computing, Northwest Information Systems, PRO:MAN Software, Rover Data
Systems, Total Computing Solutions, and now Key Data Systems Group.
Zumasys refactors and modernizes apps using its proven full-stack,
recipe which it publishes for free in a GitHub repository so all
developers can benefit. The company also offers a 4-part Full Stack
Tutorial, where you can find step-by-step instructions on how to add a
web interface to an existing PICK a
> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mvdbms/283391db-2720-4817-94fd-460f80ef63aan%40googlegroups.com.

Pete Schellenbach

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Oct 28, 2021, 5:38:19 PM10/28/21
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Posting here for Jill:

Hi.

Just wanted to let you know that although Pete Schellenbach and the AccuTerm team have been acquired by Rocket it’s business as usual for us. You can continue to send questions to accuterm at zumasys dot com, support at zumasys dot com or direct to me at jorsini at rocketsoftware dot com. all of Zumasys email accounts are being directed to our Rocket accounts. Also the forum is now up & running at https://forum.asent.com

Thanks,

Jill Orsini

Kevin Powick

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Nov 25, 2021, 1:11:10 PM11/25/21
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OpenQM changes I've seen recently:

* macOS platform no longer listed at ZumaSys downloads.  https://www.zumasys.com/downloads/

* Dead download links at https://downloads.openqm.com (server error 522)

* Developer license renewal request used to take no more than a couple of hours (often less than an hour).  Now it's 15 hours later, and I'm still waiting for more than the automated response from Rocket's help desk.

--
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Kevin Powick

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Nov 25, 2021, 4:35:38 PM11/25/21
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Finally got my license renewal, and it seems to be from the same ZumaSys folks.  Maybe just a busy day there, or still working out the transition to Rocket. 

To make matters worse, and completely my fault, I gave them an incorrect System ID, so even though I have my new license, it doesn't work.  Doh!!!

--
Kevin Powick

Martin Phillips

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Nov 26, 2021, 9:49:29 AM11/26/21
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Hi Kevin,

 

The Mac OS version of QM should still be available for download.

 

I suspect that there has been some accidental loss of data as the web site gets updated. The most reliable place the find the current list of downloads is portal.openqm.com/?t0=downloads though this will change at some point in the future.

 

 

Martin

 

 

From: mvd...@googlegroups.com <mvd...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Kevin Powick
Sent: 25 November 2021 21:36
To: Pick and MultiValue Databases <mvd...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [mvdbms] Re: Rocket's Acquisition of jBASE and OpenQM

 

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Kevin Powick

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Nov 26, 2021, 12:26:10 PM11/26/21
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Hi Martin,

Unfortunately, I had been getting a 522 error (connection timeout) for the past 2 days for portal.openqm.com.  However, I just discovered the reason is that the site is HTTP and not HTTPS. 

I now have the latest version of QM that I needed for macOS.  Thanks!

Regards,

Dawn Wolthuis

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Nov 26, 2021, 2:22:29 PM11/26/21
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You might have this information by now, but without reading the full thread I’ll pass along that it was Thanksgiving in the U.S. yesterday, and many businesses are closed for an extended holiday weekend. —Dawn

Sent from my iPad

On Nov 25, 2021, at 4:35 PM, Kevin Powick <kpo...@gmail.com> wrote:



Steve Trimble

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Nov 29, 2021, 8:42:01 AM11/29/21
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here is the URL I use for QM downloads:

Computerized Data Mgmt Inc
Steve Trimble
(501) 772-3450 cell / text

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