Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!iuvax!cica!ctrsol!emory!joe
From: joe@mathcs.emory.edu (Joe Christy)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Who will buy the NeXT
Keywords: Educational discounts, undercutting dealers
Message-ID: <4672@emory.mathcs.emory.edu>
Date: 2 Dec 89 16:37:33 GMT
References: <964@abvax.UUCP> <246300069@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu> <1989Dec1.232137.11584@ddsw1.MCS.COM> <235@ns-mx.uiowa.edu>
Reply-To: joe@mathcs.emory.edu (Joe Christy)
Followup-To: comp.sys.next
Organization: Math and Computer Science, Emory University, Atlanta GA
Lines: 34

In article <235@ns-mx.uiowa.edu> amthor@umaxc.weeg.uiowa.edu.UUCP (Geoffrey Amthor) writes:

	(includes a lot of previous articles that you've read by now, and
	then addresses some of the issues of educational discounts.
	... finally, summarizing, he says:)

>adequate support and service.  But to deny all discounts would be taking
>a sledgehammer to the the problem, doing a disservice to students, faculty,
>and to the country as a whole.  As the gap between skilled job vacancies and
>qualified applicants widens, it is suicidal to deny tools to the very people
>who need them to improve themselves.

	To bring this back to bear on the complaints about dealers supplying
service: one of the reasons service is such a problem for dealers is
massive ignorance. They are swamped by users who have only the vaguest
idea about how any aspect of their computer works. Generally the
distressed user is refered to a technician who has only marginally
greater command of the facts. Think how much easier the service people's
life would be if they didn't have to ascertain whether the power switch
was turned on, where the write protect tab on the diskette was, etc.
Think how much less frustrating the user's life would be if they didn't
have to buy a computer from a salesman who told them that they wouldn't
need a spreadsheet if they had Mathematica, or have their machine
serviced by a person who doesn't understand what stresses can cause a
power supply to fail repeatedly? Now how are you going to EDUCATE people
and eliminate these problems? Doesn't it make sense to invest in giving
people who are interested in learning easy access to sophisticated
computers?

-- 
Joe Christy         | joe@mathcs.emory.edu      | Time flies like an
Emory University    | {decvax,gatech}!emory!joe | arrow, fruit flies
Dept of Math and CS | joe@emory.bitnet          | like bananas.
Atlanta, GA 30322   | Phone: (404) 727-7956     |