What a loss. I hope someone will buy Bibleworks. I use Logos & Bibleworks. For work in the Biblical text, I much prefer Bibleworks, simpler & easier than Logos. Logos is excellent for research using commentaries, etc. but awkward for just Biblical textual work. Not surprised this happened, but what a loss.
I love BibleWorks. Much easier than Logos for translation reference. Thankfully, I have BibleWorks 10, but I’m guessing it won’t work well after a few years. The technology will pass it by rather quickly.
Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.
In an enterprise (say a BIG bank) where a vendor says …
Effective (they typically give 1 years notice) ….
The product will no longer be supported
Translate: you can use it (with a fee) but we will no longer support you / you’re on your own
Worse:
The vendor falters financially and
Goes out of business
[this is why in a large enterprise, there’s a group called Vendor management, that vets the vendor (their financials, et cetera)
Now retired but:
Early in my post-ministry career when I was doing COBOL, we had a vendor go out of business. It was about 2 years before Y2K and they said - ‘we can’t financially justify making our product Y2K compliant - good-bye!’. Our large department scrambled … people w ‘old skills’ were dismissed … many new hires to quickly develop new (combo … another vendor’s product … highly customized)
Later: a product that was probably on 20,000 desktops … so long … there will not be another version (a web based solution was developed)
It sounds like they plan on continuing compatibility updates for years to come. I hope that works out as I have two monitors on my desk and every day Bibleworks is on one and Logos on the other.
I love BibleWorks. Much easier than Logos for translation reference. Thankfully, I have BibleWorks 10, but I’m guessing it won’t work well after a few years. The technology will pass it by rather quickly.
Hopefully this works this time… having internet issues.
I have a PIM software that ceased development in 1995. Still runs just fine. Use it everyday. (there have been some minor hiccups from time to time, but nothing that can’t be overcome)
I suspect that BW will continue to run for many decades to come, although it is a shame to see them go.
I hope you’re right. I’m mainly worried about comparability issues beyond Windows 10. But, I think I’ll probably be safe for years to come. However, the textual resources will become out of date eventually. For example, what happens when the new BDAG is released, or the NA-29 comes out? Then, BibleWorks will begin to lose it’s value.
Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.
Obviously some value will diminish in resources like this, but really, even for the scholar, how many significant changes will occur in the next thirty years? I still use Thayer with profit. He hasn’t been upgrading for a long time! The changes between editions of these resources are not quantum leaps.
For the pastor, I doubt there will be any significant diminishment in their life times. The more likely areas where difficulty will occur is in Windows development, but I think even that will have minimal effect for decades to come.
This is all so very familiar to those of us who were/are PC Study Bible users. I have a few thousand dollars invested in PCSB. They’ve never officially said they’re folding, but they stopped releasing new versions a few years ago.
I’ve been trying to switch to Logos as our church has graciously paid for accounts for each of the pastors and I am building my library. I know it’s much more powerful, but it’s SO cumbersome and counter-intuitive to use, even after watching most of the training videos. PCSB was so user-friendly that often I still use it for quick study work because I just don’t want to bother with navigating around Logos. (Not to mention speed issues with Logos, I had to upgrade my computers hard drive and RAM just so I didn’t have to wait forever to do basic searches in Logos. But it’s still hard to navigate.)
------- Greg Long, Ed.D. (SBTS)
Pastor of Adult Ministries Grace Church, Des Moines, IA
Adjunct Instructor School of Divinity Liberty University
I feel terrible for the people who develop and support BW. I don’t have any Hebrew background, so it wasn’t really for me although it is light-years better than Logos in speed and ease of use.
Greg, what you are talking about with PC Study Bible has been my experience as well, and I rely much more heavily on eSword and now Olive Tree than I do for Logos. Both programs are much easier to work with and not nearly as slow and cumbersome as Logos is. I would encourage anyone getting started to look at those software packages first unless they want or need to go ‘all in’ for heavy textual or Biblical study. Accordance also looks very promising, and a lot of the major commentaries or books I want are also available for all of those platforms, and are usually cheaper to boot.
"Our task today is to tell people — who no longer know what sin is...no longer see themselves as sinners, and no longer have room for these categories — that Christ died for sins of which they do not think they’re guilty." - David Wells
Discussion
NewWhat a loss. I hope someone
What a loss. I hope someone will buy Bibleworks. I use Logos & Bibleworks. For work in the Biblical text, I much prefer Bibleworks, simpler & easier than Logos. Logos is excellent for research using commentaries, etc. but awkward for just Biblical textual work. Not surprised this happened, but what a loss.
Wally Morris
Huntington, IN
NewReply to Wally
I fully agree. Bible Works is the easiest tool for translation work of which I’m aware.
NewBibleWorks
I love BibleWorks. Much easier than Logos for translation reference. Thankfully, I have BibleWorks 10, but I’m guessing it won’t work well after a few years. The technology will pass it by rather quickly.
Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.
NewYou know what really sucks?
In an enterprise (say a BIG bank) where a vendor says …
Worse:
Now retired but:
Twitter
Jim's Doctrinal Statement
NewSad
This is a sad loss. Please pray for those who were employed and now are out of jobs.
NewIt sounds like they plan on
It sounds like they plan on continuing compatibility updates for years to come. I hope that works out as I have two monitors on my desk and every day Bibleworks is on one and Logos on the other.
NewTylerR wrote:
Hopefully this works this time… having internet issues.
I have a PIM software that ceased development in 1995. Still runs just fine. Use it everyday. (there have been some minor hiccups from time to time, but nothing that can’t be overcome)
I suspect that BW will continue to run for many decades to come, although it is a shame to see them go.
Maranatha!
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
NewDon
I hope you’re right. I’m mainly worried about comparability issues beyond Windows 10. But, I think I’ll probably be safe for years to come. However, the textual resources will become out of date eventually. For example, what happens when the new BDAG is released, or the NA-29 comes out? Then, BibleWorks will begin to lose it’s value.
Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.
Newhow big will the changes be in BDAG or NA-29
Obviously some value will diminish in resources like this, but really, even for the scholar, how many significant changes will occur in the next thirty years? I still use Thayer with profit. He hasn’t been upgrading for a long time! The changes between editions of these resources are not quantum leaps.
For the pastor, I doubt there will be any significant diminishment in their life times. The more likely areas where difficulty will occur is in Windows development, but I think even that will have minimal effect for decades to come.
Maranatha!
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
NewThis is an opportunity for
This is an opportunity for the folks who own Bibleworks to release the source code and allow community based development into the future.
Newpvawter wrote:
That’s an interesting idea.
Wally Morris
Huntington, IN
NewPC Study Bible
This is all so very familiar to those of us who were/are PC Study Bible users. I have a few thousand dollars invested in PCSB. They’ve never officially said they’re folding, but they stopped releasing new versions a few years ago.
I’ve been trying to switch to Logos as our church has graciously paid for accounts for each of the pastors and I am building my library. I know it’s much more powerful, but it’s SO cumbersome and counter-intuitive to use, even after watching most of the training videos. PCSB was so user-friendly that often I still use it for quick study work because I just don’t want to bother with navigating around Logos. (Not to mention speed issues with Logos, I had to upgrade my computers hard drive and RAM just so I didn’t have to wait forever to do basic searches in Logos. But it’s still hard to navigate.)
-------
Greg Long, Ed.D. (SBTS)
Pastor of Adult Ministries
Grace Church, Des Moines, IA
Adjunct Instructor
School of Divinity
Liberty University
NewAgreed
I feel terrible for the people who develop and support BW. I don’t have any Hebrew background, so it wasn’t really for me although it is light-years better than Logos in speed and ease of use.
Greg, what you are talking about with PC Study Bible has been my experience as well, and I rely much more heavily on eSword and now Olive Tree than I do for Logos. Both programs are much easier to work with and not nearly as slow and cumbersome as Logos is. I would encourage anyone getting started to look at those software packages first unless they want or need to go ‘all in’ for heavy textual or Biblical study. Accordance also looks very promising, and a lot of the major commentaries or books I want are also available for all of those platforms, and are usually cheaper to boot.
"Our task today is to tell people — who no longer know what sin is...no longer see themselves as sinners, and no longer have room for these categories — that Christ died for sins of which they do not think they’re guilty." - David Wells
NewLogos is offering special assistance to BW users
Logos is offering some solutions to BW users: https://blog.logos.com/2018/06/helping-bibleworks-users-transition/.
Thomas Overmiller
Pastor | StudyGodsWord.com
Blog | ShepherdThoughts.com