Mach from mt Xinu

[Dick Dunn]

witr at rwwa.COM (Robert W. Withrow) writes:

[comments on Korzeniewski, Rosenthal postings]
> Of course, if you had taken the time to *read* what I wrote, instead
> of gleefully spewing out your ad hominum brayings, you would have
> noticed that I said: ``From what I understand of your
> announcement...''...

OK, so if that's the difference, I gather one makes an insult acceptable
by preceding it with "From what I understand..."?  After all, you concluded
that "from what you understand" mt Xinu is just a very expensive floppy-
duplicating service which doesn't really provide support - and that is a
deep insult to some very good people.

Does this mean you would not have been offended if Chip had written instead,
"From what I understand, you don't know jack shit..."?  Chip, Frank: take
note--here's a way to flame next time without offending!

Perhaps the level of flame you got from these two people is higher than you
might have expected.  You may have been unlucky in that respect, as the
anti-vendor flames have been wearing thin on some people here.  You just
happened to say the wrong thing about the wrong people in the wrong way in
the wrong place at the wrong time.

> ...Also, since software does not ``wear'', the
> limitation to 90 days does not make any sense...

You want an infinite warranty?  A more useful statement would be "since
software doesn't `wear', the analogy to a warranty on a physical commodity
does not make sense."

> Let me make a (hopefully) constructive suggestion to MtXinu that I
> believe would not adversly affect their profit margin (and would, I
> believe, actually enhance it by increasing sales):
> 
> Sell Mach (for the $1000 or $1500 or whatever) with an ``Unlimited
> Money back Guarantee''...

Why not just suggest that they declare Chapter 7?  Comes down to the same
thing.

Now, you *could* suggest that they sell the software with unlimited-term
bug fixes...that's half of what you're asking...but the price is *not*
going to be $1000-1500, or anything close to it.

> This stragegy limits your support costs because you can always pull
> the plug and give a refund...

Sure...and the customer can pull the plug and TAKE a refund.  He can use it
until it's obsolete, find a bug (or whatever) and demand a refund.  He gets
the use of it for as long as he wants; the price of the software is merely
a deposit.

> Of course, there will always be the small percentage of bums who will
> take undue advantage of the warantee, but experience shows that they
> are a very small percentage, and that the advantages greatly outweigh
> the drawbacks.

Experience shows nothing of the sort.
-- 
Dick Dunn     rcd at ico.isc.com -or- ico!rcd       Boulder, CO   (303)449-2870
   ...But is it art?