Comments on: Has Logos Bible Software made the competition obsolete?

By: Patrick George McCullough

Patrick George McCullough — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:43:39 +0000

Well, I think they recognize the importance of cross-platform use and are working on it. They have something for Mac, even if it’s not ideal. And they’ve got something for the iPhone/iPod Touch even if it’s not ideal. So, they’re moving in that direction.

I don’t know that I share your feelings regarding the demise of Windows. Just numbers-wise, how many people have Windows versus how many people have Linux? I can understand the frustration you have if you’re unwilling to use the big bad evil Windows, but the company is working on serving its customers in different ways, like producing more resources. I wouldn’t demonize them over that.

By: slaveofone

slaveofone — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:20:43 +0000

I agree that cross-platform compatibility is a major issue. If you can’t use software on your computer, what good is it? Unfortunately, it appears that Logos isn’t willing to hire the people it needs to become cross-platform capable, let alone platform independent. Unless you run the particular operating system of Logos’ choice, you will be unable to use their software. I spoke with them at SBL a few years back about this, pleading with them to make their software run on Linux/Unix and that was basically their response. If I want to use their software, I’m going to have to buy a new computer and/or install a different operating system (Windows). NO THANKS.

This is not only backwards in terms of a business model (the company tells their customers how to meet their demands instead of meeting the customers’ computing needs), but it’s simply ridiculous. We are fast moving into an era where software that is hopelessly tied to a particular system will either become obsolete or will lose customer base to others who are more willing to be cross-platform and platform independent and I think Logos will eventually find this out the hard way.

By: clayboy » Biblical Studies Carnival XLVIII

clayboy » Biblical Studies Carnival XLVIII — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:25:48 +0000

[...] A different kind of session was a competetive software shootout, covered here by Rick Mansfield. Michael Heiser pronounced his beloved Logos the winner, and a row ensued. Rick Mansfield has subsequently taken down his feisty and fighting response. (I’ve re-read it, and can’t see why, apart from his first question which seems to be down to a confusion / mistake in the conference programme.) You can read another account on Deinde with a whole lot of further links. Pat McCullough also chimes in. [...]

By: Danny Zacharias

Danny Zacharias — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 13:22:48 +0000

Chris made the point I wanted to make about the iPhone version. I think the Logos iPhone app is a great thing- but you are not going to be syncing your library to your iPhone. You will be syncing your library to a cloud, and your iPhone will be able to use and access anything in your cloud. If you can’t connect to the cloud (internet connection) then you got nothing.

By: Christopher Heard

Christopher Heard — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 04:56:25 +0000

For those of us who work on a Macintosh, Logos is not even close to making the competition obsolete. Never mind that some of us have 15+ years' worth of monetary investment in Accordance modules, the shipping Mac version of Logos has already been abandoned by Logos in favor of an entirely new application that uses the Windows code base and is currently considered an "alpha pre-release." Given how long it took Logos to ship Logos for Mac v1, I don't expect Logos for Mac v4 (or however they will number it) to dethrone Accordance on the Macintosh platform anytime soon. Also, I can use all of my Accordance modules and Bible Reader (for iPhone) modules without an Internet connection—that's not true for the Logos iPhone application (I don't have direct personal experience with the desktop version of Logos 4). I like Mike, and if I were buying into Bible research software for the first time for use on the Windows platform, I would probably consider Logos the odds-on favorite (although other Pepperdine faculty have negotiated group licenses with BibleWorks, so the choice might be made for me on the PC). But the Mac version of Accordance is still quite preferable to the Mac version of Logos, in my view.