Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!agate!ucbvax!unisoft!gethen!bdt!david From: david@bdt.UUCP (David Beckemeyer) Newsgroups: comp.unix.microport Subject: Re: uport Support Message-ID: <351@bdt.UUCP> Date: 13 Jul 88 22:16:33 GMT References: <17124@sgi.SGI.COM> Reply-To: david@bdt.UUCP (David Beckemeyer) Organization: Beckemeyer Development Tools, Oakland, CA Lines: 31 In article <17124@sgi.SGI.COM> vjs@rhyolite.SGI.COM (Vernon Schryver) asks: >Are Microport 'Hotline Support' or 'Upgrade service' worth it? > >If I send a bunch of bug reports to Microport, what good will it do >me? Will I get fixes or patches? Are updates frequent, with lots of >fixes? ... The answer is NO. There are ways to deal with Microport but buying their services is not the most effective. Who nees Hotline Support when the switchboard operators can't even transfer the calls? Even if you do get through to somebody after several calls, they seldom can offer much help with real problems (unless you have the "is the power turned on?" type problems, which I doubt). It's cheaper and faster to figure out solutions yourself. I bought the upgrade contract. I guess I got what I paid for but I think one could get anything I got *without* buying the upgrade service. As for bug reporting. I have sent in quite a few. I even went so far as to prepare programs that reproduce the errors and I shipped diskettes with instructions and documentation. My guess is that they went straight into the circular file. I have gotten patches for problems but it didn't happen becuase I sent in bug reports or paid my upgrade fee. It happened becuase I became a squeeky wheel which needed some grease (not too much mind you, but a little!). -- David Beckemeyer (david@bdt.uucp) | "Yea I've got medicine..." as the Beckemeyer Development Tools | cookie cocks a his Colt, "and if 478 Santa Clara Ave, Oakland, CA 94610 | you don't keep your mouth shut, I'm UUCP: {unisoft,sun}!hoptoad!bdt!david | gonna give you a big dose of it!"