Showcase Distribution

[Ann Sydeman]

Thanks for all the interest in IRIS Showcase. I know many people are very
eager to receive a copy of the software as soon as possible and so have
requested that we make Showcase available through anonymous ftp. We
will continue, however, with our current plan for distribution- bundled 
with all new machines, bundled with all OS upgrades, immediately 
purchasable through Software Express for those who want it NOW.

I understand the need and desire to be able to access this software for
free and have it now. Showcase is a very useful tool. For two main reasons,
we will not make it availale via anonymous ftp: customer support and network
issues. Showcase IS a supported product. The Technical Assistance Center 
(aka the hotline) does their best to answer questions as efficiently 
as possible. It is unfair to ask them to support a product which has been 
released without documentation. Also, but perhaps less importantly, the 
Showcase images are large, about 7 Mbytes, and contain many components- 
executables, help files, and other support files.  We neither want to tie 
up the network transferring these large files to many sites, nor have to 
support bad installations or corrupted data.

Showcase was developed with the needs of our customers in mind. It provides
badly needed basic productivity tools. I hope the positive side of receiving 
such useful software for negligible, or no, cost outweighs the frustration 
of having to wait a little while or pay $100. 

Thanks,

	Ann