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From: oplinger@minerva.crd.ge.com (B. S. Oplinger)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: official tos 1.4 release
Message-ID: <3603@crdgw1.crd.ge.com>
Date: 26 Oct 89 17:06:46 GMT
References: <4634aec9.14a1f@force.UUCP> <1734@atari.UUCP> <9831@chinet.chi.il.us> <1989Oct22.195156.14155@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca> <5115@orca.WV.TEK.COM>
Sender: news@crdgw1.crd.ge.com
Reply-To: oplinger@minerva.crd.ge.com (B. S. Oplinger)
Distribution: comp.sys.atari.st
Organization: General Electric Corp. R&D, Schenectady, NY
Lines: 37

In article <5115@orca.WV.TEK.COM> stank@anvil.WV.TEK.COM (Stan Kalinowski) writes:
>In article <1989Oct22.195156.14155@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca> nemeth@gpu.utcs.UUCP (Gabe Nemeth) writes:
>>What I find annoying is that ROMs that fix bugs in the operating system
>>that was promised years ago is costing me $100.  Surely Atari could
>>afford to foster some loyalty by offering a "nominal" trade in price
>>for ROMs.

>>  The mac os is essentially free (you can buy an official disk
>>for $45) and I wonder how the copywrite would affect TOS. 

>$45 doesn't seem much like free to me.  I think you are really
>alluding to the fact that Mac os releases are sold on disks and are
>thus easier to illegaly pirate.  (I don't know what Apple's view of
>copying is, but I suspect they don't approve.)  You must also keep in
>mind the cost of the distribution media, Apple ships their OS upgrades
>on 3.5 in. floppies which cost significantly less than the six ROMs
>that Atari is using.  Also, the ROM set is going for $90 in my area,
>so it sounds like your dealer is overcharging, unless that $100
>includes installation, in which case it's a good deal.


Lets get a few facts straight. Every Apple system software update
cost $0. Thats right -- it's free. Now if you want the docs and
would like to get brandy new disks instead of copies over your
old disks, you can pay $45. I think $100 (list price, you dealer
can charge what he wants, this is America after all) for a set of
ROMS WITH DOCUMENTATION OF NEW FEATURES would be a good deal. But
what does my $100 get me. Roms? No, EPROMS (an rather cheap, slow
ones at that). Documentation. No, just a Xerox of the sheet the
developers got, if my dealer feels like making me a copy. C'mon
Atari, surely you can be just one little bit professional. Can't
you? (Maybe not). After all, the upgrade was promised, but like
the blitter support for the 520 and 1040, I guess all Atari is
good at is hot air.

brian (like the machine, but the company leaves alot to be desired)
oplinger@crd.ge.com