Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!bellcore!rutgers!cmcl2!nrl-cmf!ames!sgi!vjs From: vjs@rhyolite.SGI.COM (Vernon Schryver) Newsgroups: comp.unix.microport Subject: uport Support Message-ID: <17124@sgi.SGI.COM> Date: 10 Jul 88 07:19:06 GMT Sender: daemon@sgi.SGI.COM Organization: Silicon Graphics Inc, Mountain View, CA Lines: 39 Are Microport 'Hotline Support' or 'Upgrade service' worth it? I recently purchased for my private, evening use, a "limited" 386-system with DOS-merge. (After a bunch of bumbling trying to make tapes work, they tell me that $1300 is not enough. Their recommended backup medium, Everex tape, requires an optional, $100 driver. The alternative is diskettes. Is this real unix, without any removable mass storage? One has expects a certain minimum, even from System V.) 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? Fully characterizing a bug so that someone can reproduce and fix it is real work. Writing a coherent report is worse. I don't need to pay money for the opportunity. I ask because, during these first 7 days of my free (sic) 30 days of support (free=~$700, the $ difference between BTI & Microport), I've had mixed experiences. One person knew things, and was anxious and able to help. Two seemed less knowedgable, or were tired, or forced at gun-point to answer the phone. A fourth person was a zilch. Perhaps last week was bad for them. It did take forever to get thru--they were very busy. I can probably come up with work-arounds myself, when it is possible. I could certainly consult the SVR3.x source the next day. However, I don't intend to steal source, the bug fixes, or even the raw time for which SGI, my employer, pays. So, should I spend the couple of hours to document and submit the bugs I've found so far? Should I send them another $350 for support & upgrades? What have long-time Microport customers found? (Given that I've already spent $700 more than BTI's price, you can probably guess the answer I'm hoping for.) Vernon Schryver vjs@sgi.com