>if version 6.1 were made available, would this address your
>concerns?
To the extent that it would allow current or new users or
installations of PEM to operate, yes.
Ali, you represent one of the few sites that actually has an installed
base. What we have here is the classic "new product --- what do we do
about backward compatibility" question here.
From your point of view, you have an installed base and would prefer to
remain with the version that you have installed.
From TIS's point of view, we prefer to continue with the MIME/PEM
version of the technology. When considering the question of sites with
an installed base, let me make the following observation. We are aware
of several communities with an installed base, however they all
represent closed communities; we are not aware of significant (if any)
inter-community communication with PEM. In this situation, one possible
direction any product could take is to provide a migration path from the
"old" to the "new" and discontinue support for the "old". TIS chose
this path with its implementation of PEM. However, we're certainly not
the first company to choose this path for its product. It's a business
decision companies make every day.
To directly answer the question of making Version 6.1 available,
unfortunately making it generally available is tantamount to supporting
it, which we can not realistically do. We could, however, provide it on
a case by case basis to those who just have to have it (with no support,
of course).
Jim