Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!tellab5!wiseman
From: wiseman@tellab5.tellabs.com (Jeff Wiseman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware
Subject: Re: The final accounting on LaCie's SilverLining. Post now!
Message-ID: <2402@tellab5.tellabs.com>
Date: 12 Apr 90 17:34:03 GMT
References: <3843.2621a673@vax5.cit.cornell.edu>
Reply-To: wiseman@tellab5.UUCP (Jeff Wiseman)
Distribution: comp
Organization: Tellabs, Inc. Lisle IL
Lines: 54


In article <3843.2621a673@vax5.cit.cornell.edu> a6ey@vax5.cit.cornell.edu (O) writes:
>
>    OK, I'm getting tired of this.  WHAT is the deal with
>    SilverLining?  I see a lot of people who are happy with it on the
>    net, and then I see a posting here and there which says that it
>    really stinks.  The people who don't like seem to mainly have

This is one product that I really beleive in, and I have found some bugs that
LaCies tech support didn't know of. The only problem that I have seen recently
was a situation where going in and out and in and out of setting passwords on a
partition (with the silverlining app. being run from the startup
disk--something that you wouldn't normally do anyway), the disk lost track of
its partitions but then prompted if you wanted it fixed. when you say yes, it
fixes them. The only thing is that you looose the passwords and have to reset
them.

But I don't care. I have never seen it on my machine (sys 6.0.2, 6 or so inits,
SE dual floppy running 2 external disks-- one a 40M quantum from Lacie and the
OTHER a 20M apple miniscrib taken from an upgraded SE20 inside a Lacie
external box and totally reformatted and loaded with silverlining drivers- 2
partitions). The little pixel that flashes nicely ORs the two drives activity.
I have a total of 5 partitions that I regularly reshuffle sizes and optimze (my
disks are pretty crammed). Never any problems. And I love the feature set and
intuitive interface.

All software has bugs. Nice applications are nice because they have few bugs
and the ones they have you want to ignore because you like the interface and
the way the product functions in general (Dollars and $ense is a good extreme
of this example. Lots of bugs but people like the way it works so much that
they try and deal with the frustrations of the bugs--ie. they try to figure a
way around them). I've only found one significant "bug" and I'm not sure
weather or not it was even due to the silverlining application itself or not.

BUT...

Any company that has:
  - a 1-800 number for tech support
  - actually answers calls
  - regularly RETURNS calls within a day
  - tech support that will ask the programmers the answer if they don't know
    it themselves rather than try to make one up.
  - will hold your hand and say "I'm sorry to hear that" (and mean it) if they
    DON'T know the answer :-)
  - can issue a string of updates for the cost of handling ($5).

Just CAN'T be ALL BAD!

(but then, I like it when people talk to me :-)

Just my 2 cents worth.

-- 
Jeff Wiseman:	....uunet!tellab5!wiseman OR wiseman@TELLABS.COM