Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!uc!noc.MR.NET!msi.umn.edu!umeecs!umich!samsung!xylogics!transfer!lectroid!angmar.sw.stratus.com!jmann From: jmann@angmar.sw.stratus.com (Jim Mann) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: Boycott NeXT offerings that include a free copy of Lotus Improv Message-ID: <2839@lectroid.sw.stratus.com> Date: 25 Oct 90 12:37:25 GMT References: <123663@linus.mitre.org> <565@kaos.MATH.UCLA.EDU> Sender: usenet@lectroid.sw.stratus.com Reply-To: jmann@angmar.sw.stratus.com (Jim Mann) Organization: Stratus Computer, Inc. Lines: 30 In article , ramsdell@mitre.org (John D. Ramsdell) writes: |>By delaying your upgrade, you will disappoint NeXT's hope that this |>promotion would encourage rapid upgrading. If they have paid money to |>Lotus for this, they will see it was wasted. Both of these things |>will help to prevent this promotion from being the start of a trend. |> And you will also, if you drive out Lotus, disapoint NeXT's hope of finally really making it in the business world. Improv may be the product for NeXT that 1-2-3 was for the PC -- the product that made the machine acceptable to all sorts of businesses. The next couple of years are going to be very important for NeXT. They will decide whether NeXT becomes the machine of the 1990s or the Amiga of the 1990s. (No insult to the Amiga intended here. The Amiga is a great machine that is not widely accepted in the business world, and has lots of users scratching their heads, wondering why more people don't buy it.) A Lotus product -- more importantly, a great Lotus product, which Improv seems to be -- may make the difference. Yes, I disagree with Lotus on this one. I disagree with Apple in their suite against Microsoft. That doesn't stop me from using Macs. The solution is NOT to scream at Lotus or Microsoft, both of whom are doing what the law allows: trying to protect their interface. It would be stupid of them, given the current laws, not to. Instead of protesting against Lotus, write to your Congressman, telling him/her to change the laws. Jim Mann Stratus Computer jmann@es.stratus.com