Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!sceard!mrm
From: mrm@sceard.Sceard.COM (M.R.Murphy)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386
Subject: Re: Does Microport offer Updates to its users?
Message-ID: <1990Sep2.182531.27736@sceard.Sceard.COM>
Date: 2 Sep 90 18:25:31 GMT
References: <846@iiasa.UUCP> <847@iiasa.UUCP> <10615@rls.UUCP> <334@uport.UUCP> <723@vidiot.UUCP> <1737@ssbn.WLK.COM>
Reply-To: mrm@Sceard.COM (M.R.Murphy)
Organization: Sceard Systems, Inc.  San Marcos, CA  92069
Lines: 32

In article <1737@ssbn.WLK.COM> bill@ssbn.WLK.COM (Bill Kennedy) writes:
[stuff indicating mild disappointment with Microport deleted :-)]
>I'll grumble and growl about ISC and AT&T but I'll stick with them because
>their products work.  There are quirks and thinks that annoy, but they
>don't hurt you.  I screamed and howled about Microport because they hurt
>you and laugh about it.

Our '286 uPort systems have mean time between reboots of more than 60 days.
When we got 'em out of the box from uPort that wasn't the case. uPort provided
support as they were able, the gracious, kind, and generous dwellers of the
net provided even more. uPort never laughed.

For one used to source distribution environments in Unix(tm), the binary
distribuition environment is a royal pain in the tail. When a person is
reduced to violation of the license agreement (by disassmbling object code)
to fix a bug, that stinks.

I would lay blame on human frailty, but what good would it do? Goodness, if
people had source, why they'd steal it or copy it or break it and still ask
for support. Or not, but not having source really makes it a chore to fix
problems. Forty-two curses on the marketing, legal, and management dweebs
who came up with the idea of limited-use binary licenses, and on the techie
dweebs who implemented the practice.

BTW, anyone who has called any tech support facility with a non-trivial
question knows what kind of support can be expected. It doesn't matter which
company (3-letter, 4-letter, who cares) they all perform or mostly fail to
perform about the same. I like the ploy of a one-operator 800 service with a
constantly busy response.
-- 
Mike Murphy  Sceard Systems, Inc.  544 South Pacific St. San Marcos, CA  92069
mrm@Sceard.COM        {hp-sdd,nosc,ucsd,uunet}!sceard!mrm      +1 619 471 0655