Lately I started to ask myself if all the cheerings about Embarcadero being the right home for Delphi were wrong. I do not mind they killed the CodeGear brand, I never believed in it. And being Italian, I have no problem to spell Embarcadero. I just feel almost nothing is changed from Borland days, and new issues look to arise.
There is still the very slow pace towards technologies thare are no longer "new", the 64 bit compiler is being handled like Unicode support. Of course "no one needs more than 32 bit for an integer". Like noone needed Unicode, until they eventually implemented it.
There's the new multi-platform attempt despite the release that brings money today is late under several aspects, and if at a first glance it may look appealing, multiplatform requires a lot of resources to go beyond the compiler, otherwise the Windows version, where all developers are today and make money, will stall again. And unless Delphi aims to become a "jack of all trades and master of none" killing its own Windows market too, there is a delicate balance to find between portability among platforms and native application development.
It looks multiplatform supports is more needed by other Embarcadero products than customers.
There's the somewhat mysterious "new Delphi language" Nick Hodges talked about, although since then there was no other news about it, but it's a bit scaring for all those who choose Delphi because it gives almost C++ power without being as much as complex.
There's the new, security-less Datasnap, a pretty useless framework for any real application. And there's the total lack of understanding about security needs in today applications.
There's the new upgrade policy, that just risk to cut out some customers, especially because it is being applied in a time of financial difficulties - I own a RAD 2007 licenses thereby it does not apply to me, but I understand the issue faced by developers who for any reason didn't upgrade yet and have to upgrade - maybe being unable to port their applications to Unicode at once -, or have to pay for a full, new license later. And we blamed Borland for milking the cash cow...
There are the same old SKUs, which does not adapt to the current market needs, but are still unchanged from th '90s, and noone looks to understand their price/feature ratio is no longer competitive, and require a revision to match customer needs. And we blmaed Borland for milking the cash cow...
There are RemObjects' people pushing their own products actively on Embarcadero newsgroup, without telling explicitly who they are really - and without any Embarcadero member raising an eyebrow.
And there are the same old people, Intersimone, Kaster, Hodges, who didn't a good job in the past, and still seem unable to manage the product properly, and find a proper market segment for it - still looking for new ways to waste resources and delay much needed improvements. Maybe the problem was not Borland upper management? Maybe the issues were much closer to the product than we thought? Maybe being @Embarcadero just means nothing changes?