Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!hp4nl!star.cs.vu.nl!ast
From: ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: Minix updates from PH for $29.95?
Message-ID: <7375@star.cs.vu.nl>
Date: 23 Aug 90 18:57:17 GMT
References: <1990Aug22.232908.10410@bnrgate.bnr.ca>
Sender: news@cs.vu.nl
Organization: Fac. Wiskunde & Informatica, VU, Amsterdam
Lines: 18

In article <1990Aug22.232908.10410@bnrgate.bnr.ca> fortinp@bcars223.bnr.ca (Pierre Fortin) writes:
>Geoff Kratz)
>Based on my experience so far, maybe Andy should try to find a proper software
>distribution channel whose knowledge of computers is a little more than
>automatic invoice generation.

I suppose we could start a thread about war stories of all kinds (the
company that kept billing for $0.00; the time DEC was in our machine room
for SIX MONTHS trying to fix a VAX 750, etc.)  Suffice it to say that a
new person is in charge of MINIX now, and I have reason to believe that
at least the mechanics of buying the software will get better.  Technical
support will continue at the current level--zero--but it was not claimed
that for this price you would get any.  While it is true they screw
up royally from time to time, as a percentage of the whole I don't think
they are any worse than other big companies.  Remember, you only hear about
the times they mess up.  When everything goes normally, nobody mentions it.

Andy Tanenbaum (ast@cs.vu.nl)