Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!uwvax!tank!eecae!netnews.upenn.edu!eniac.seas.upenn.edu!strasser From: strasser@eniac.seas.upenn.edu ( Colin J. Strasser.) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st Subject: Re: official tos 1.4 release Message-ID: <15579@netnews.upenn.edu> Date: 17 Oct 89 14:26:42 GMT References: <460c4f58.14a1f@force.UUCP> <2097@hudson.acc.virginia.edu> <4634aec9.14a1f@force.UUCP> <1266@cacilj.UUCP> Sender: news@netnews.upenn.edu Reply-To: strasser@eniac.seas.upenn.edu.UUCP ( Colin J. Strasser.) Distribution: comp.sys.atari.st Organization: University of Pennsylvania Lines: 80 In article <1266@cacilj.UUCP> paul@cacilj.UUCP (Paul Close) writes: >Oh my, a bug in RTS/CTS handling! Tsk, tsk. Forget about the zillions of >bugs they fixed, forget about the months of development, and focus on one >obscure bug. The reason it wasn't fixed, I'm sure, is that none of the >developers who beta-tested even *use* RTS/CTS flow control! Folks, what we have here is the bane of the consumer -- the "brand loyalist." By that I mean those of us who've used Ataris and (yes) Commodores since long before the IBM PC was a twinkle in Big Blue's eye. I'll bet that he (like a lot of us) stuck by his small, innovative company from Atari 400/800 through 1040ST, with all the lean years in between. Maybe some of you remember (or HAVE) the Commodore 64 and 1541 disk drive. For years Commodore denied that its DOS had any bugs despite frequent testi- mony about its file overwrite (save-with-replace, they called it) doing all kinds of strange things from swapping filenames to triggering nuclear melt- downs. Well, somebody finally PROVED that the bug existed, Commodore was forced to at least acknowledge it (and recognize that others might exist) and the users of Commodore computers were safer and happier. My point here is that a bug -- any bug -- is an IMPORTANT THING. Allowing a company to sell buggy software is tantamount to letting it screw you in any other way. Don't let Atari off the hook on this one so easily. You might regret it later, and so might they (big business doesn't deal with companies that turn a blind eye toward product shortcomings -- denying a bug is not the way to generate confidence in a small, undermarketed company like Atari). >Why don't you pay up and become a developer? Try working to make the Atari >better instead of complaining about how bad it is?!? It's ATARI's job to make its products work correctly, not its users'. >Go buy an Amiga or something and quit complaining! "My Atari -- love it or leave it," eh? Well then next time you're screwed you will know who to blame: yourself. (BTW, all my comments apply equally to Commodore -- and any other company, for that matter.) >Wrong. If it wasn't for Atari, we wouldn't have this wonderful machine that >truley delivers "power without the price"! When the ST first came out, an >8MHz 68000 was *power*!!! Even today, it is a respectable machine. Ever >priced a 25MHz 68030 machine? Come up with a figure a home hobbyist could >afford? I didn't think so. Just a note: anybody remember the original price of an Atari 800 with 16K? I seem to remember a figure around $1000 or so. >You don't sound very proud to me. He doesn't have to be proud of Atari (the company) to be proud of Atari (the machine). >...I sure get tired of people who think that Atari should do >everthing for them. I'm glad there are developers who *do* something to >improve the machine, instead of just whine and complain. When buying a computer, just as for any other high-ticket item, you're buying the company behind it. If service is nonexistent, if support is minimal, if the company is unresponsive, then the computer, no matter how technically ad- vanced, will never gain acceptance -- especially companies like Atari and Commodore who already have negative images. >-- >Paul Close paul@cacilj.CTS.COM ...!{uunet, ucsd, crash}!cacilj!paul > > The Obi-wan Kenobi method: "Use the Source, Luke" -Jim Fulton -Colin strasser@eniac.seas.upenn.edu ============================================================================== Colin Strasser University of Pennsylvania strasser@eniac.seas.upenn.edu Moore School of Electrical Engineering CI$: 72447,1650 Class of '90 -- Penn's 250th year! There is but one law: "Don't get caught."