Sunday, May 9, 2010

The Value of Hard Copies

My Windows 95 era copy of the Expositor's Bible Commentary no longer works in Windows 7. I recall purchasing the series for $85 back in the day. If I want another electronic copy that does work, I will need to pay $130 to order it from Logos, but that is more than the series is worth to me. If I had the 12 volume printed edition, I would still have access to it... Goes to show the wisdom in Bibleworks' frequent admonitions "to think carefully before building large electronic libraries."

5 comments:

Mike Aubrey said...

That's just as much about the publisher of the product as it is about the Biblework's warning. Zondervan has been difficult with this sort of thing from the very beginning.

I have a copy of Logos 2.0 Level 4 from 1997-ish that I continue to use -- without ever paying for an upgrade. And I've been able to use it in Logos in every updated version they've put out since then.

To be honest, there are only a few volumes in the Expositor's set worth having. You may want to consider picking them up used individually off Amazon pretty cheaply.

Anonymous said...

What you might consider is downloading Microsoft's VirtualPC and installing Windows95 (or whatever operating system will support your software) under it so you can continue to run your program.

VirtualPC is a free download and is very commonly used to stretch the life of useful software.

-- Ishmael

Charles Savelle said...

I feel your pain. I am in the same boat. To add insult to injury, the Expositor's series your are referring to is being revised (completed?) so we have to decide whether to pay premium prices for an older resource. It is interesting that used volumes of the original series can be purchased at a significant discount but the software version is still quite high.

Ken Penner said...

I take it this was a Pradis product, and that you know about Logos' discount offer for Pradis users?
http://www.zondervan.com/Cultures/en-US/NewsRoom/NewsReleases/Logos+Discount+for+Pradis+Users.htm?QueryStringSite=Zondervan

d. miller said...

Thanks for the suggestions and sympathy.

Mike, I agree that Logos is in a different category. Still, we don't know what the electronic future will be like 15 years from now.

Ken, I assumed that the discount did not apply to the pre-publication price. I'll be glad to update the post if the discount does apply, but even then I would have to pay for the set over again. My EBC CD is also pre-Pradis, unfortunately.