Rudi Nieuwenhuis

osong
i am referring to an arrangement like sidefx had with Tim V

crafting those series did not stall H development i can assure you

your point is not difficult to understand. hopefully mine is clear as well

Even though Tim van Helsdingen and I come from and live in the same tiny country, we do not know each other (yet) so I am not aware of any arrangements there are between him and Sesi so I can not comment on that.

The comment I quoted earlier:

seifdune
"Why don't Side effects take a little of their budget to pay for the courses?" i can't agree more.

is what triggered my reaction.

If you want more tutorials on subject X, Y or Z, made by 3rd parties like Tim van Helsdingen or plenty of other very capable tutorial-makers, just ask, no problem there. But demanding Sesi to pay for your courses, when they are already giving you access to the software for free (for educational purposes) is a bit, well, never mind, maybe it's just me getting old.

osong
Producing tutorials would not impede development, a different person can record educational material. With your logic all the accounting, licensing, and other departments are standing in the way of developing things faster. (exaggerated example)

In the world I live in, you can only spend your money once. Now equal money with employee hours.
Even though SideFX might feel like family, in the end it is still a business and if they spend more money then they make, in no time there will be no Houdini left.
Is this really so difficult to understand?
The idea of just keep pumping more money (hours) in it is not a sustainable solution.

seifdune
"Why don't Side effects take a little of their budget to pay for the courses?" i can't agree more.

I honestly think that this is a little bit disrespectful to all the efforts that the entire SideFX team is putting into education.

You have to understand that making cutting edge software is not easy, and staying at the frontline is even harder. Documenting the whole intended usage costs time as well, and then making tutorials is very time-consuming as well.
SideFX is not a mega-company with thousands of employees, it's a relatively small team.

Think about it: would you rather have them put more effort in tutorials, which automatically means less time to develop new features, so less impressive software. Or would you prefer to pay double or 10-fold the price you pay for the software now?

I know I for one am very happy with the way SideFX does this right now. Fantastic software with very regular updates and improvements, lots of great educational content, and if something is not clear, a more than capable and always friendly staff at support to help you in the right direction. What else do you honestly need?