(Was: Can't backup to floppy)

[Dimitri Rotow]

In article <425 at l5comp.UUCP>, scotty at l5comp.UUCP (Scott Turner) writes:

[ Scott responds to some unwarranted criticism of Microport, and then
  turns to some Bell bashing ...]

> 
> If you want someone who will REALLY get your blood pressure up I'd suggest
> using Bell Technologies' Unix/386. Their idea of customer support is to 
> issue a "Return for refund RMA". (The hardware end of Bell Tech seems more
> flexible, they fixed the W.G.E. we sent back for repair in about 4 hours.
> Went back out the same day they got it...)
> 
> So you MIGHT want to be nicer to the boys at Microport, you CAN do a WHOLE
> LOT WORSE... Take it from someone who's been there (with Bell Tech), you think
> you're mad? Just imagine being told that they won't fix the problem, with or
> without a service contract!!! (But they'll be HAPPY to refund yer money, grrr)
> 

Scott, you're being unfair to the deal you made by buying UNIX from Bell 
Technologies.  Until our release of System V/386 Release 3.2 (pending), we
have not sold UNIX with the full support commitment we give in our hardware
lines.  We explicitly sell it with "installation support" only:  that's 
only the support necessary to tell if the media shipped out is defective.
The salespeople go to great pains to make this clear to every customer, because
they make a lot more money selling SCO Xenix to someone who needs support
services on an extended basis than they do shipping UNIX System V/386.

The idea is to provide a high quality UNIX for professional users at low cost
under the assumption that there is a class of UNIX users who do not need the
support services which are bundled into the price of other UNIX's.  There are
many thousands of such companies and users who don't use technical support
and who don't want to be forced into paying for it.  Our UNIX publication has
been a big hit with the quantity buyers and integrators, as well as with 
developers who want direct, non-proprietarized access to the Intel/AT&T 
UNIX effort.

Consider what happens when you pay $495 to $1495 a copy of the base system:
a big chunk of your purchase price goes to pay for a technical support 
capability that comes bundled with the software.  When you compare pricing, 
you could be paying as much as $100 to $1000 for that tech support capability.
Suppose you're one of the people who has in-house integration capability
and never calls tech support (the majority of customers)?  Wouldn't you feel
bad about being forced to pay $100 to $1000 more per copy of UNIX for a
service which you don't use?  Wouldn't you rather have the ability to pay
less for the package and forgoe a service you don't use?  I know you feel
you need the support (as is your right), but others don't want it and 
don't want to pay for it.

Likewise, there will be bugs in the release which affect some users.  The
idea behind the program is that for most people, those bugs will not be
show-stoppers.  After all, there are bugs in every release of UNIX, no
matter who does it.  Again, there is a large class of users which desires
direct access to UNIX at as low a mark-up as possible and is willing to 
make their own determination if the release is right for them.  Many 
people prefer to have the (comparatively) limited set of bugs in the 
official, SVVS-debugged version of UNIX System V/386 than to have the
unknown layer of bugs injected when people massage the official release
into proprietarized code.  You pays your money and you takes your choice!

Now there aren't very many ways for us to tell whether or not a customer
is capable of doing his own integration.  As everyone on the net knows, 
there are plenty of people holding themselves out as expert integrators
who really require end user style support.  There's no sure-fire litmus
test we can apply to determine how competant a give customer is.  There's 
also no way we can tell if a give customer will step on a bug.  We can
tell them the product sells with installation support only, and that it
is oriented to people who want to be captain of their own ship.  We can
hear them say "yes, that's what I want," but we still can't guarantee
that they really understand the situation and will be happy with straight
System V as opposed to SCO Xenix, or Microport, or ISC 386/ix.

Since we're not here to play Big Brother, the best we can do is to treat
our customers with respect and give them the ability to make 
their own determination as to how appropriate UNIX System V/386 and our
support policies are for their particular use.   If they don't like the
deal once they're into it, we cheerfully refund their money and let 
them return the product.  Why are you bashing us for giving people an 
option that they otherwise wouldn't have, and which many thousands of 
people are happy to exercise?

Note that our hardware products are sold under a different support policy,
where we have unlimited support for use.  Also note that we are respectful
of your comments and sensitive to the idea that a large class of customers
desires to have support bundled in or as an extra price option.  We will
be providing such a support program with our 3.2 "merged" product.

Sincerely,

Dimitri Rotow