System V/AT v2.4 Impressions and Bug Report

[Steve Rudek]

The BIG news, at least as far as I am concerned, is that 2.4 appears to have
*finally* fixed my serial port panics!  The machine hasn't crashed in a week
--that could be just chance, but I've never before approached that
long an uptime.  Curses is also MUCH healthier and, apparently, much
more ansi/vt100 (?) compatible (hey, all I know is that vnews works like a
charm and it was totally garbaged up with 2.3).

Over the past year and a half, most of my initial good will toward Microport
for having introduced a reasonably-priced UNIX implementation has
been destroyed by miscellaneous Microport employees (in my book, epitomized
by Brian Tihista--an ignorant, unprofessional and truely obnoxious individual
who shouldn't be permitted ANY sort of contact with the public but who, at
Microport, serves as a "Customer Service Representative.") who obviously
know little and care much, much less.

Just prior to getting 2.4, however, a "John Plocher" invited me to call him
directly.  We had a long telephone conversation during which Mr. Plocher
listened patiently and gave me assurance that if 2.4 didn't fix my problem he
would personally see that a solution was pursued.  Even though I wasn't
expecting an improvement from 2.4, John Plocher's personal interest
considerably tempered my anger.  Now that my serial port "panic" problem
appears to finally be fixed I'm looking forward to healing some of the
ugly feelings I've developed toward Microport.  I'd suggest that anyone who
has ongoing experience of being maltreated by Microport call directly either
John Plocher or John Sully (another Microport employee who, in my opinion, puts
his best effort into his work).

P.S.>

By the way, I've repeatedly suggested to both John Sully and John Plocher
that a Microport quarterly newsletter might perform wonders from a public
relations standpoint.  For instance, most of my frustrations with Microport
could be considerably diffused if they would just disclose known software
problems and document their efforts toward a solution.  Not all customers
have access to the net and calling the Microport BBS is expensive,
time-consuming or impossible for others.

I expressed the opinion that the cost of distributing such a newsletter would
almost certainly be more than recouped if they sold a little bit of
advertising space.  John Plocher didn't dispute that and, in fact, said that
the cost of a newsletter wasn't his primary reservation.  He is of the
opinion that there might not be enough worthwhile information to justify a
newsletter; he doesn't want to mail out a worthless piece of paper.

John Plocher's concern is almost impossible for me to appreciate.  With the
2.3 release, for instance, two serious bug fixes--the corrections to the
inittab file and to the console terminfo entry--could have been distributed
in a newsletter costing 25 cents!  Instead I had to waste many hours and 
spend probably 25 dollars in phone calls to the Microport BBS to get the
simple answers.  The recent discussion about replacing the USART in serial
cards in order to clean-up high speed communications would more than justify
an issue all by itself!

How do you folks feel about a paper newsletter?  Maybe a sufficient volume
of interest might influence Microport to begin such a publication.  As I
told John Plocher, if he is concerned about finding personnel to help
produce a worthwhile mailing, there are probably lots of USENET folks who
would be willing to contribute substantive articles.  If you agree with me,
I'd suggest you send John some email.