Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bbn!rochester!kodak!elmgate!jdg
From: jdg@elmgate.UUCP (Jeff Gortatowsky)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Software pricing (was Re: WHAT ATARI NEEDS TO DO...)
Message-ID: <924@elmgate.UUCP>
Date: 30 Apr 88 06:02:04 GMT
References: <209@bdt.UUCP> <115@avsd.UUCP> <10400@sunybcs.UUCP> <267@gould.doc.ic.ac.uk> <305@bdt.UUCP>
Reply-To: rg@aurora.UUCP
Organization: Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, NY
Lines: 42
Keywords: Sadness
Summary: No bargains

I could'nt agree w/ Mr. Beckmeyer more! I can buy a PC-Clone much cheaper
than a mega. And, the public domain applications software is in most
cases better than commercial grade ST software. I do blame atari for
claiming what nice support I was going to get on my $3000 purchase, and
when it came right down to it, all that was tripe. During Deskcart!'s
construction, several hardware/software questions were asked of atari
and absolutely NO decent answers given. In fact, at one point QMI was
told it cannot be done. Water under the bridge... QMI will be lucky to
break even on the product. I rasied real comotion(sp?) on a local BBS
by asking a simple question "Why should I develop software for the ST?".
By the time it was done with, 3 people sold there ST's, and, still no
decent answers. PRINT-IT!, another program I coded that never made it to
market (another story completly) was given to Beta testers... And one day
I recieve a phone call from a chap I had'nt talked w/ since early 8 bit
days. We chatted botu' this and that... and, I was told (to my total
astonishment!) that PRINT-IT! was on bulletin boards in california...
He downloaded it and showed it to me! And I'm gonna make enough money
to justify the time and effort put into an application? (har! har!).
A mac II developers system was/is able to be had for $3500... Apple has
an upgrade for AUX thats free... a total motherboard replacement...
I would love to think that atari could reverse the trends that snowballed
during their "we don't care syndrome". I like coding on the ST (did I say
that?), beyond the masses of bugs, and the "I can only run this program
if I dont have that program resident & that program I need because I want
to do this... So, I'll go spend useless money on a program that works."
(I wish atari had put the reset button on a function key, as, it gets as
much action as any other key.) The root I guess is that the market has me
(and I guess many others) totally perplexed. 

(P.S. This is a borrowed acnt. send any email to the address below. It'll
be forwarded to me).

cheers... Rick




-- 
Jeff Gortatowsky        .....allegra!rochester!kodak!elmgate!jdg
Eastman Kodak Company  
These comments are mine alone and not Eastman Kodak's. How's that for a
simple and complete disclaimer?