Oracle appears to have killed off Release 7.0 of Primavera P6. The questions is, why? Those of you who have downloaded Primavera software from the Oracle Software Delivery Cloud are probably aware of the existence of older Primavera programs that are no longer sold – P3 and SureTrak in particular. The purpose, as we understand, is to support licensed users who may need to reinstall these programs. Oracle grants a perpetual license for each program, so this makes sense. Yet Release 7.0 has recently been dropped from Oracle’s eDelivery site. Release 7.0 was the first version released after Oracle purchased Primavera. We have always liked this version because its user interface is a little simpler to learn and the program is less likely to crash than some of the newer releases.
Release 8.1 has been dropped as well, but this seems like much less of an issue. The differences between Releases 8.1 and 8.2 are so minor that most users would never notice them. But Release 7.0 is much different that the R8 series and it would seem likely that some users would want to continue using this older version. We know of one major construction company with over a $1B in annual revenue that has standardized on Release 7.0 so clearly it is not considered to be an inferior program. Oracle stopped using serial numbers with R7.0 so in theory the software could be copied from one computer to another, but whether this is considered legal is another matter.
Primavera Scheduling now recommends that users purchase Release 8.3 to avoid any licensing issues in the future. Our initial testing of R8.3 suggests that is more stable than R8.2 and besides, we do not have too many other choices! Either we purchase R8.2 or R8.3 or we buy something else. Primavera P6 is dominant scheduling program in the United States so there is really no incentive to switch. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions regarding which version of Primavera to purchase.