This entry is not intended to offend anyone. This just represents my personal view on the current situation.

It's not the point that we are angry, because we did not get free stuff. The point is how Line6 runs their business and how they treat customers. The current situation is bad in my opinion, because it does not serve anyone. Neither Line6 nor their customers/us. Here is my view of the things, as a guy that is developing commercial software for almost two decades. Sorry if this sounds like technobabble to you.

The current information, that is communicated by Line6 officials,after several months have passed after the winter NAMM press release, basicly consists of two statements:

1. The firmware 2.0 release for POD 300/400 will be released sometimes, but no release date is given.

2. The new features are not specified/disclosed.

What does this tell about Line6?

Assumption 1: Line6 follows a industry standard process for quality sofware engineering like defined in CMMI-DEV or similar. They reach at least maturity level 2. So they have done extensive requirement management. They also have planned for the entire life cycle of the product from the beginning. They have taken this into account when the initial hardware design was made. They internally know exactly what the 2.0 release will contain, they have set up milestones for implementation and product validation. The release date is fixed.

Conlusion: Line6 could answer all questions from various posts on the forum, but they just do not want to, because they don't care.

Assumption 2: Line6 has some genius DSP engineer(s) that decided what the hardware should be like and implemented the the initial firmware (aka "Cowboy Coding) and now try to add some new features, depending on what the old hardware can support, but never was intended to do.

Conclusion: Line6 cannot give a firm release date, because they simply don't know, when the new firmware will be done. The final feature set will be determined, based on what the developers can squeeze in, during the development process. After the release bugs will get fixed, as bug reports come in from the customer base.

As a customer I ask myself, why would I wan't to buy products from company that either does not care about their customers or lacks the ability to deliver a maintained high quality product across the entire life span?

Quite frankly the DEP cab editing is the most important.  That should make the unit far more usable, as right now the HD300 and 400 produce far more bass, which cannot be effectivly dialed out internally in the unit (IMO - speaking as both an audio engineer and a guitarist of 18+ years).  If they have taken this amount of time and are unable to provide this addition, I think Line6 will do a serious disservice to the customer base.  Essentially the EQ control this provides in the low end should have come with the unit right out of the gate. 

The Bass Amp being 2nd, as it is new/unique and expands the units functionality beyond electric guitar. 

Plexi being 3rd as it is a desirable amp and the feedback from 500/Pro users suggests it is a nice addition.

The Pre-Amp is more or less just a little bonus.  If they are unable to implement this, I won't care. 

(if they wanted to throw in tap divisions such as dotted 8ths, such as the 500 has, that would be nice too)