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From: bjorn@dataio.UUCP (Bjorn Benson)
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: Re: Software reviews (and Jerry Pournelle)
Message-ID: <244@dataio.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 7-Dec-84 14:15:19 EST
Article-I.D.: dataio.244
Posted: Fri Dec  7 14:15:19 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 8-Dec-84 06:22:11 EST
Organization: Data I/O Corp., Redmond WA
Lines: 40

>     A software review is very different from a product review...

I do not see how a software review is different than a product review 
in this case:  software is a product.  Consumer Reports buys their 
products so that they can review what they want to, Jerry Pournelle 
looks in his In-Basket and reviews what he wants to -- the only 
difference being that one buys it and the other gets it free.

>     Software reviews are very similar to book reviews for the above reasons,
> and Jerry Pournelle is doing exactly what every book reviewer does.

Software reviews are similar to book reviews but not exactly the 
same:  First, software is a good deal more expensive ($40 to $495) 
than books ($3 to $10).  Second, sofware is used time and time again 
(for example, I use my editor everyday) whereas books are read once, 
and maybe a couple more times in the future (in general).  Thus, the 
reviewer is getting a great deal more for writing a review of software 
than a review of a book, which brings up...

> No one seems to think that a book reviewer is unduly influenced by being 
> given a free copy -- I don't see why there should be a fuss about software 
> reviewers acting the same way.

And yes, I agree, for a single instance, a software reviewer does not 
give a biased viewpoint because he is a reviewer.  But... (and this is 
my main argument) Jerry Pournell gets ALL his stuff free (or cheap) 
and has the executives and engineers from most of the major software 
companies fawning over him.  This gives him a biased view of the 
industry, and this can not help but show up in his reviews.

> ...and it would be very nice if BYTE had the budget to permit Pournelle to 
> buy several thousand dollars worth of software for each issue.  

Yes, it would be nice.  But they can't, and so the editors should be 
very careful in checking that the reviews are unbiased and that the 
special status the employees of BYTE have do not unduly affect their 
articles.

					Bjorn Benson
					..!uw-beaver!teltone!dataio!bjorn