Re Ancestry & FTM

[Kimbrey]

http://www.tamurajones.net/SoftwareMacKievFamilyTreeMaker2014.xhtml

Sorry if this has already been posted-I think MavKiev were the original owners of FTM and Ancestry bought it off them but not sure about that.?

As I understand it they are offering an update to currant  FTM 2014 users  initially and providing you maintain your Ancestry subs the Sync will still funtion but will are also selling FTM 2014

Can someone take a look and see what they think there is a good QA page

Kim

[Jomot]

Oh heck, I didn't understand a word of that!   I was already terrified about moving to a new laptop  - it took me long enough to install the FTM discs on this one due to some unfixed bug or other - now I'm petrified 

Hoping someone will come along soon and explain in very, very, very plain English!

[StevieSteve]

I'd suggest skipping down to the conclusions and start with that

[Tom Huygens]

In short...

- MacKiev has always been the maker of the Apple version of FTM
- when Ancestry announced they would stop producing FTM, MacKiev bought it
- they are currently supporting all versions, including FTM 2014
- people who have issues with FTM 2014, can get a beta version made by MacKiev (2014.1)
- this is, however, still a beta version, and is visibly identical to the "normal" FTM 2014
- new clients who want to buy the program get this 2014.1 version
- at some point later this year, MacKiev will provide a "new" version of the program with hitches corrected, performance and stability enhanced etc, probably also some brandnew features
- FTM users who previously had 2014, will get a free update
- new users and users of an older version will have to pay for it (probably with a discount for old FTM users)
- sync with Ancestry will remain, but as RootsMagic is now in the loop too the whole system might be somewhat different than we are used to

I hope this clears things up a bit 


PS I don't really know what the woman in the article is talking about... She is trying to compare two almost identical products to each other, while the real update she speaks about has not yet been provided by MacKiev... This article would make sense once the MacKiev version of FTM is there and to compare that with the old ancestry version. At some point she even admits: FTM 2014 and FTM 2014.1 are one and the same. Why compare?

[Jomot]

Thanks Tom

I think I'll just wait & see what happens, and worry about installing on a new laptop as & when the time comes.

[Kimbrey]

Thank you Tom for such a clear explanation-like Jomot I too will wait and see what develops I would like to be able to continue using FTM

Kim

[slimjim]

In fairness to Tamura Jones I think it is worth pointing out that his articles on family tree software are almost always highly technical and are often about the GEDCOM standards compliance of the software. Sometime, as here, there is background information.

I think these technicalities come into the same category as discussing the computer software which enables your car to produce an optimum mix of air and petrol (i.e, largely irrelevant to most of us until something doesn't work, and then we call in an expert)

David