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From: george@gvax.cs.cornell.edu (George R. Boyce)
Newsgroups: net.decus
Subject: (copy) Where is my software support?
Message-ID: <208@gvax.cs.cornell.edu>
Date: Thu, 27-Feb-86 17:22:07 EST
Article-I.D.: gvax.208
Posted: Thu Feb 27 17:22:07 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 3-Mar-86 00:37:29 EST
Reply-To: george@gvax.cs.cornell.edu (George R. Boyce)
Organization: Cornell Univ. CS Dept, Ithaca NY
Lines: 42

Dear DEC,

The sendmail program as distributed with V1.1 of Ultrix came with the
ever popular bug that I'd rather not discuss except to say that I
don't like just anyone su'ing to root on *my* systems... What I want
to flame about is why this bug was not caught before distribution and
why customers in the field have not been informed of the bug.

1. Ok, so why wasn't the bug caught before distribution? The bug and fix
are as old as the hills. Now I admit, *I* didn't know about it until I
was stung by it a few months back but then I don't have a staff as large
as the DIGITAL development staff must be and I don't have people paying 
me to distribute the software.

2. Why, once you realised the erorrs of your ways, didn't you notify
your customers of the bug and provide the simple work around (which is
to delete the freeze file)? Don't you think we pay you enough to cover
the cost of a mass mailing?? I seem to recall a certain magazine which
recently sent a mass mailing to all of their subscribers to notify
them of a table which had two columns (obviously) mislabeled. How is
it that I get better service from a company who gives me their product
for free?

3. Please explain why we do not receive regular software bug reports.

4. Please explain why there is no provision for software patches in the
field. Do you really think that every bug you ever find can wait until
the next release of the operating system?? Colorado's answer of "it is
fixed in the next release" doesn't do me a damn bit of good.

5. Please explain, given the answers to the two questions above, what
advantage there is to obtaining Unix software from DIGITAL instead of
from Berkeley. I have to justify the cost of doing business with DIGITAL
to my boss and I think he is starting to answer these questions himself
based on our experiences and not on your promises.

George Boyce, Cornell Computer Services
G16 Uris Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca NY, 14853

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