I'm forwarding the email below from a friend, who has some insightful observations and advice about the PTC FOSI retirement notice.
Hi Jack,
Although I left PTC/Arbortext several years ago, ... I do have some advice to offer. I'd be happy if you shared my advice with the community without attributing that advice to me. So here goes...
Product managers continually deal with the problem of when to drop support, whether they're talking about a specific version of an O/S (such as Windows XP), a platform (such as Unix), or a product (such as the FOSI engine).
Sometimes the best way to gauge the impact is to announce the end of support and listen for the screams. I think you should assume that PTC will react if the screams are loud enough.
While the revenue from Arbortext products is a small part of PTC's total revenue, there are quite a few VERY important PTC customers who have bought into everything PTC from Creo and Windchill to Arbortext (e.g., Caterpillar, John Deere, Boeing, and plenty of others). I strongly suspect that if you all got together and told PTC that this decision was unacceptable - i.e., that you demand they continue to invest in maintaining the FOSi engine - that they will back down.
If that doesn't work, then I would advise moving away from the FOSI engine - but slowly. I suspect that only an external event, such as the availability of Windows 11 or 12, could spell the end of the FOSI engine. Whatever happens, I think it's still several years away. In the meantime, if the FOSI engine continues to work for you, and if you have something else to do, then I'd postpone working on finding a replacement.
Best regards,
--Jack
LSI, Inc.
Jacksonvlile, FL
