open this package and you're stuck with it

[Martin Jensen]

In article <777 at lectroid.sw.stratus.com> jmann at bigbootay.sw.stratus.com (Jim Mann) writes:
>The problem with returning software you don't like is that there is a very
>fuzzy line between "doesn't work" and "doesn't work as cleanly/elegantly
>as I would like it to."  If you buy an editor, let's say, and it's quite
>kludgy: it uses idiotic key sequences, non-standard menus, and so forth.
>You can't stand using it.  Yet it does all this with no "bugs."  Should you
>be able to return it for a refund?

Yes!

I would say "No" if the user had been given a chance  to  fully  evaluate  the
product  beforehand,  however,  the  fact  remains  that  there  is usually no
accurate way to evaluate a product  before  the  purchase.   Software  vendors
would  have  us  buy  their  products based on their description and assesment
("Our product is GREAT! Everyone  LOVES  it!!   Buy  it  now!!!")  or  on  the
judgement of an "independent" evaluation by a third party.

Taking  editors  as  an  example, if we were to read all the evaluations on pc
based editors we would come down to  the  choice  between,  say,  Epsilon  and
Brief.   If  we don't have access to a copy of each, the choice becomes a coin
toss -- hardly an informed choice, nor a particularly smart  way  to  spend  a
couple of hundred dollars.

Would  you  buy  a  car without taking a test drive?  Highly unlikely.  Unless
software vendors can find a means of  giving  the  user  a  proper  chance  to
evaluate  a product (Say a full featured copy of an editor, but one that won't
write the file .. That way you can evaluate all its features and  capabilities
without  actually  getting  a  working  copy.)  I  think  we  all should start
insisting on warranties that extend beyond the removal of the shrink wrap.

Enough people made enough noise to get copy protection removed ... maybe we
get the right to evaluate before we buy.

>
>If you answer yes to the above, does this mean that you should be able to
>return any book that you buy but don't like?

As to the book analogy ... I can quite legally borrow a copy from the local
public library ... try doing that with your favorite editor.


    /|  /|
   / | / |          -/-             Martin Jensen  (mjensen at bbn.com)
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