Is Imatch 5 ready for production?

[Frank]

As Mario told us many times that Imatch 5 is ready if he and the forum thinks that Imatch 5 is ready.

So I was just wondering what the forum collegues think about imatch.

regards
Frank

[Menace]

I work with 5 databases with all kind of files. Sometimes a small problem, when closing, but mostly works without any problems. I would pay immediately for this fine piece of software, I daily work with. 

[DigPeter]

I now have sufficient confidence to use IM5 for real.  I first backed up all my images and keep these and copies of any new ones separate from the working set.

[herman]

I think IMatch 5 is feature complete and stable enough for me.
I would not hesitate to buy a license and manage my image collection with the program in it's current state.
But I am not the average user.
I think Mario knows his target best, so I have no idea, Mario should decide, but I DO care 

[Mees Dekker]

I work with myself for some 4 months with iMatch 5 and have forgotten about IM 3.6 (although it still resides on my computer). Found no major problems. So: yes iMatch 5 is ready for production work.

But...., I noticed that there are some minor details in the database conversion. I can't remember in what thread, but a few days ago Mario mentioned that he had forgotten to include a certain caption in the database conversion. Would be fixed in build 152.

Now, the proper working of the database conversion tool is essential, because once you cross over to iMatch 5, you won't keep up your records in iMatch 3.6 any longer and the two databases start to grow apart. If a new conversion would be necessary on a later moment, you either loose your new entries made in iMatch 5 or you won't have all the information you contained in iMatch 3.6

[Ferdinand]

It must be getting close, but it's the sort of issue that Mees mentioned that still makes me cautious.  There is still a list of bugs on the bug forum and only Mario knows whether any of these are serious, and perhaps not even him

[Mario]

I work with myself for some 4 months with iMatch 5 and have forgotten about IM 3.6 (although it still resides on my computer). Found no major problems. So: yes iMatch 5 is ready for production work.

But...., I noticed that there are some minor details in the database conversion. I can't remember in what thread, but a few days ago Mario mentioned that he had forgotten to include a certain caption in the database conversion. Would be fixed in build 152.

That was not the database conversion tool. It was the import function in the thesaurus when a user wants to import his old IMatch 3 user thesaurus. The caption field was not offered for import even it the user had entries for that field in the IMatch 3 thesaurus. Not a harmful bug and since it has gone unnoticed for so long, it is unlikely that many users will ever encounter it.

There is no bug free software, ever. It's just that it contains bugs not encountered often, or never. Or just by a few users who happen to have a specific machine configuration, usage habit, mouse, video card or whatever.

I recently read that the Adobe LR team fixed 500 (!) issues betweem two of the more recent LR versions. Consider that. A rather mature software (consider how often users had to paid for LR updates since it came out) and still this amount of issues to fix.

IMatch 5 uses an agile process and I have automated pretty much of the entire build->installer->ship cycle. I can roll out an update in less than two hours now. Even if there would be a nasty bug in IMatch 5 which causes problems for many users, I should be able to send out a bug fix release very quickly (given that I can find a bug fast enough - which is likely if it is reported by many users).

IMatch 5 will be released with a non-empty bug list, that's for sure. I concentrate on bugs which may cause damage or invalid data for many users. Bugs reported only by a few, minor or 'cosmetic' issues, usability inconveniences, performance problems for non-typical use cases or exceptional large databases and similar things will be dealt with in the releases which follow the initial release.

The IMatch 5 web site is nearly finished - at least the part that needs to be ready when I ship. Know-how and FAQ sections and the like will be added later.

I'm currently looking into linking the share-it! order system with the new customer web site for a smooth and immediately download experience after the purchase. I have already completed the design of the new order page and all that.

The official release of IMatch 5 is not far away. I consider it more than good enough for an initial release. I use it in production, and most of my local test group too. I have worked with initial releases or even mature releases of other software which was way more unreliable and unstable than IMatch. And the legendary reliability of IMatch 3 did not come over night - it took quite a number of releases to weed out most bugs.

[DigPeter]

The official release of IMatch 5 is not far away. I consider it more than good enough for an initial release. I use it in production, and most of my local test group too. I have worked with initial releases or even mature releases of other software which was way more unreliable and unstable than IMatch. And the legendary reliability of IMatch 3 did not come over night - it took quite a number of releases to weed out most bugs.

BRAVO MARIO

[JohnZeman]

I'm not a pro, and while I'd hate to lose my metadata, images, etc, it wouldn't be the end of the world for me either if I did lose it all.  So I made the decision to change over to IMatch 5 last August, I never use IMatch 3 now.  Was it an easy transition?  At the time not at all, the program was too unstable then and many times I had to scrap everything and start all over again.  But this was good for me in one way, I became very proficient at exporting my categories, settings, and doing daily backups of my database.  Not to mention importing images over and over again.

That was last fall, since then everything has become more stable and useable.  So as far as I'm concerned, the program is at least very close to being ready to launch, I can't think of any show stopper bugs I've encountered that I'd need to have fixed first.

[Ferdinand]

What has held me back from attempting a switch was the need to do a serious cleanup of my IPTC keywords, which are in a bit of a mess across the DB.  I also want to use that migration script of mine to migrate certain categories to keywords in advance of making the switch.  This is a fairly big job.  I knew that it was getting close to release, but I didn't really realise that it was that close.  Perhaps now I need to make some time for that cleanup.

[Richard]

What has held me back from attempting a switch was the need to do a serious cleanup of my IPTC keywords

Yeah, I know that situation all too well. 

[voronwe]

Just for curiosity:

Do you have any idea so far how about the price of IMatch5?

[DigPeter]

Just for curiosity:

Do you have any idea so far how about the price of IMatch5?

Cheap at the price 

[HansEverts]

Like John, I switched some time ago. I couldn't imagine Mario waking up some morning thinking "this was all a big mistake, I quit". And if he would, I still had an old copy of images and database.

I never regretted it, although there were some chilly moments, The current version is not less stable than heaps of other software, where if something goes wrong you have the following choices:
1) after following for hours the links through the" Contact us" button, you simply give up after a couple of loops bringing you back to the first screen again, or
2) you end up clicking this Chat button, where you submit your question, are asked to repeat that same question and constantly wonder whether you are talking to a real human being or a computer, or
3) are asked to send an email, on which 9 out of 10 cases you get no answer, or
4) where you are told that with your contract you are not entitled to support even thoug you just bought the softwhere.

I still don't know how he does it and I often believe there must be a couple of Mario clones running around to handle all the aspects of the application and give usually within 24-48 hours answer to a question. If the answer does not come, I often thought I could hear Mario's brain cells grinding  trying to figure out how to answer such a silly question politely.

Mario, IM5 is great and the support is truly unbelievable.

[cytochrome]

I haven't touched IM3 since over 6 months. I have a simple workflow, use only the features I am interested in (very bad beta tester!!) and have now great confidence that this is stable.

I feel I have enough control over how IM5 writes and propagates metadata, the categories are fine since very early versions (in the v.120 I think). As it is now it does all I need and very well, so when IM5 goes commercial I'll buy it...

Francis

[RainerG]

Since this year, i use (at my own risk ;-) only IM5!

[Richard]

how about the price of IMatch5?

How about $0.50/page for the Help files and IMatch is free when you purchase the Help files? 

[Mario]

I still don't know how he does it  (...)

Time travel...    

[Mario]

how about the price of IMatch5?

How about $0.50/page for the Help files and IMatch is free when you purchase the Help files? 

Interesting....

[emef]

how about the price of IMatch5?

How about $0.50/page for the Help files and IMatch is free when you purchase the Help files? 

Interesting....

Yes, but for help in French I go up to $ 0.75/page