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From: fry@zariski.harvard.edu (David Fry)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Re: system 7.0b???????
Message-ID: <5734@husc6.harvard.edu>
Date: 15 Feb 91 12:16:40 GMT
References: <9102150545.aa05600@Bonnie.ics.uci.edu> <5733@husc6.harvard.edu>
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Organization: Harvard Math Department
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In article <5733@husc6.harvard.edu> I write:

>The real reason Apple isn't distributing it is: it's not done.  A
>large company like Apple can't afford to release broken
>products, even with the understanding that it's not stable,
>may be dangerous, or whatever.  People would get the wrong
>idea about broken or undocumented features, you'd see endless
>complaints that it's too slow because people don't understand
>about debugging code, and others would be angered about losing
>data because of a crash (even if they knew perfectly well they
>shouldn't be using it).  In the end, everyone would just
>remember all the bad things about System 7.

If I may expand on this:

Imagine if Sears announced that they had a really great new
blender in the works, but that it's not yet finished.
However, if you wished, you could send them $7 to cover
shipping and parts, and they would send you a prototype.  The
understanding is that it works pretty well, but 
Sears is not responsible for what might happen.  Well, it
turns out these blenders are pretty good, but the prototypes
are rather noisy, they leak sometimes, and a few people have
had fingers lopped off by broken blades.  What do you think
would happen to Sears' reputation and business?

Imagine, however, that Lotus had a similar deal involving
prototype high-performance racing engines that could be had at
cost.  A handful of racing teams around the world would buy
them, and maybe some drivers would be killed due to defects in
the products.  Nothing would happen to Lotus in this case
because such a small and specialized market is involved.  The
people that got the engines would be technically capable
enough to understand what they were getting involved in.

I give these examples in response to the people who expect
Apple and IBM to have the same business policies as Sun,
Silicon Graphics, and other smaller computer companies that
deal with a specialized market.  The risk is too great for
them.  While Cray may be able to release a beta release of its
operating system, you can't expect Apple to do so.


David Fry                               fry@math.harvard.EDU
Department of Mathematics               fry@huma1.bitnet
Harvard University                      ...!harvard!huma1!fry
Cambridge, MA  02138