The best developer evangelism is just responding to bug reports and user questions. When I am standing in a pile of your CDs and DVDs worth a small fortune in licenses, do NOT treat me like a thief when I call for help 3AM in the morning. That goes to Adobe, IME.
The best support I got from a tool vendor:
3) Apple. I walked in as a newb with a $50 G3 iMac I bought from Craigslist. Haven't touched a mac before since the SE. Told the "geniuses" I am an Open Source developer and I need to setup a mac box so I can port our GPLed genome research software to the Mac. They took the box, put a new panther on it, xcode and gcc and gave me 3 ADC CDs, and a postit note on which my name and a password where scribbled for the ADC website. Much respect and love to the guys at the Apple shop in Clarendon Blvd, Arlington, VA.
2) FileMaker. I have been trying to connect it to a MySQL database to copy data overnight. ODBC worked with a higher-end version than what we had and I couldn't get a purchase order out on time. Called sales and asked them if they would bill my employer. No they said, but I can have the ODBC drivers and "enterprise" utilities for free.
1) LispWorks. I asked them if the "Professional" version supported DDE so I could script MS Office with it. Along with the answer, "yes", was a URL to the full version. This is not a "developer" tool, not an add-on, not a pluggin, it's their fucking FLAGSHIP application. WOW!
Above I said the best developer evangelism is responding to developers: yes, your developers are your best evangelists.
The best support I got from a tool vendor:
3) Apple. I walked in as a newb with a $50 G3 iMac I bought from Craigslist. Haven't touched a mac before since the SE. Told the "geniuses" I am an Open Source developer and I need to setup a mac box so I can port our GPLed genome research software to the Mac. They took the box, put a new panther on it, xcode and gcc and gave me 3 ADC CDs, and a postit note on which my name and a password where scribbled for the ADC website. Much respect and love to the guys at the Apple shop in Clarendon Blvd, Arlington, VA.
2) FileMaker. I have been trying to connect it to a MySQL database to copy data overnight. ODBC worked with a higher-end version than what we had and I couldn't get a purchase order out on time. Called sales and asked them if they would bill my employer. No they said, but I can have the ODBC drivers and "enterprise" utilities for free.
1) LispWorks. I asked them if the "Professional" version supported DDE so I could script MS Office with it. Along with the answer, "yes", was a URL to the full version. This is not a "developer" tool, not an add-on, not a pluggin, it's their fucking FLAGSHIP application. WOW!
Above I said the best developer evangelism is responding to developers: yes, your developers are your best evangelists.