Software support (Was: SCO License security - another flame)

[Paul Barton-Davis]

In article <8 at gogoman.sf.ca.us> erik at gogoman.sf.ca.us (Erik Fortune) writes:
>Marc Unangst writes:
>>ralfi at pemcom.pem-stuttgart.de (Ralf U. Holighaus) writes:
>>> You could do so with SCO, and then usr /etc/brand for the system speci-
>>> fic files to 'brand' the new system to the new serial numbers.
>>
>>No, you can't.  "brand" does just what its name implies -- it brands
>>the file permanently with a serial number.  It's impossible to
>>re-brand a file.
>Curious.   The troubleshooting tips in my SCO documentation
>tell me how to use /etc/brand to rebrand an object file.
>
>This is the second inaccurate flame about SCO I've seen today.
>Do you guys make any attempt to verify the things you bitch
>about or do you just make this s*it up?
>
>-- Erik

One thing that many people on this list should try to remember is that
because of SCO's increasing success in marketing Unix for PC's is that
there are a growing number of sites using their software who (i) do
not pay support fees to SCO (due to lack of finances) and (ii) do not
have network access (internet or uucp). These sites may well end up
being a significant portion of the market for PC Unix, especially if
the trade rags continue to paint such a frightening picture of
networks.

Companies in this position are faced with a situation that in many
other contexts would be simple: they buy a product and it doesn't work
as advertised. However, the lamentable warranty practice for software
tunrs this into a nightmare instead a "take it back and complain"
deal.  Any flames that I may have contributed have been based on this
type of experience, and I acknowledge that SCO, ISC, DEC and Sun all
upgrade and produce fixes on a continuous basis. However, unless you
are plugged into the support network (in several senses), these tend
to be remote, if visible at all. I have had so many clients say to me
"But what doesn't it *just* work ?", and I really have no answer
except to say that "it doesn't - you have to work at it to get it to
do that, if its possible at all." I have the good fortune to have
normally had access to contacts, the net and prior experience - how
some companies will manage PC Unix systems in the abscence of these
things is a good question. Has anyone ever tried to test software
"warranties" ? Does anyone who works at a vendor company *like* the
fact that their efforts are going out the door saying "no warranty of
suitability for a particular purpose" ? You mean, grep(1) *won't* find
regexps ? You mean that brand *won't* rebrand a system ? To me, this
displays a marked lack on confidence on the part of management, but
perhaps I'm naive.

-- 
Paul Barton-Davis <pauld at cs.washington.edu> UW Computer Science Lab	 

"People cannot cooperate towards common goals if they are forced to
 compete with each other in order to guarantee their own survival."