Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!utah-gr!uplherc!sp7040!obie!wes From: wes@obie.UUCP (Barnacle Wes) Newsgroups: comp.unix.microport Subject: Re: Support matters Summary: Service costs money, fool! Keywords: A working product is the key Message-ID: <150@obie.UUCP> Date: 12 Aug 88 15:38:02 GMT References: <294@gandalf.littlei.UUCP> <236@belltec.UUCP> <6475@bcsaic.UUCP> <723@wb3ffv.UUCP> Organization: the Well of Souls Lines: 36 In article <1519@ddsw1.UUCP>, learn@ddsw1.UUCP (William Vajk) writes: % One of my beefs with uport, and I've stated this time and again in this % newsgroup, is that support is never supposed to mean paying a publisher % to cover their tracks for screwups. Support is supposed to mean helping % a customer lacking information or experience to use the product. I've % never once requested _support_ from your firm. For many months I have % asked uport to fix the product. In article <723@wb3ffv.UUCP>, howardl@wb3ffv.UUCP (Howard Leadmon ) replies: > Well I will agreee with you on the statement made above, and Uport should NOT > charge anybody the cost os a support contract when all they want are bugs > reported/fixed in the original release that was shipped to them. For this > reason I too have only purchased the UPDATE service, since due to my years > of UNIX experience I really don't require hand holding... That would depend on whether the bugs are Microport's, or AT&Ts. Also, you have to remember the price Microport is charging for this stuff - I bought my system in Dec. 86, and it cost (I think) $550. I looked at two other systems at the same time. I could have bought SCO Xenix, for $1200 for roughly the same system. Higher cost, a little bit better support, but not enough to make it worthwhile. I also could have bought Sperry's (now Unisys') Xenix for $2500. Why so much? The Sperry product comes with the kind of support you would expect from such a company, and it costs a lot of money. My brother works in the Unix Support Group at Unisys. They have some major customers, and he and several other support people worked most of last weekend on fixing a "drop-dead" problem for a large customer. Do you know how much it costs to have 4 or 5 software/engineering types work a weekend? That's why the OS costs so much more - the support is included! -- {hpda, uwmcsd1}!sp7040!obie!wes "Happiness lies in being priviledged to work hard for long hours in doing whatever you think is worth doing." -- Robert A. Heinlein --