Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!uwvax!oddjob!ncar!noao!arizona!gudeman From: gudeman@arizona.edu (David Gudeman) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: When will Microsoft give us a *REAL WORLD* C Compiler Message-ID: <5557@megaron.arizona.edu> Date: 21 May 88 00:00:39 GMT Organization: U of Arizona CS Dept, Tucson Lines: 54 In article <32505@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com> tat00@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (Tom Thackrey) writes: >In article <5537@megaron.arizona.edu> gudeman@arizona.edu (David Gudeman) writes: >><> support :-)>> > >I find myself in the unexpected position of defending Microsoft... >As with any products there are problems from time to time... Sure, I said I understand that. It's not the problems that bother me, it's the way the problems are handled. >...When I complained by mail of a QuickBasic bug which >turned out to be covered in the READ.ME file, I got a phone call within >a week explaining my error to me and asking me to call back if their >diagnosis proved inaccurate... This is defending MS? It takes them a week to answer a question, and then all they say is "Yup. That's a bug all right." >I am not under the illusion that MS products or support are perfect, >but, they aren't significantly worse than most of the industry and >they are better than some. As I said before, that's no excuse. >Their major offense seems to be that they are big and successful... What's wrong with being big and successful? That _is_ the goal of forming a company isn't it? No, Microsoft's major offense seems to be that they screw their customers. I can think of many big and successful companies I would gladly do business with. >FLAME ON -- As far as moral obligation goes, I suggest you buy the >product before you scream about poor support. Good grief (said in a dry monotone to avoid further charges of screaming :-). I said the reason I _don't_ buy it is because of the poor support (add a trace of sarcasm). Also, the term "scream" is an extremely poor choice (entering a dry, pedantic tone of voice). I assure you that I wrote the article in complete calm, and that I feel no particular passion or resentment towards Microsoft. Happily, I heard enough about them before I bought any of their products (except MSDOS, and I knew what I was getting into there). In fact, the reason I wrote the article was because it appeared that someone from MS actually reads these things, and I was hoping for a reply along the lines of "Gee, your right, we are going to completely change our customer support." (OK, it was a harmless fantasy.) David Gudeman gudeman@arizona.edu Department of Computer Science {allegra,cmcl2,ihnp4,noao}!arizona!gudeman The University of Arizona 602-621-2858 Tucson, AZ 85721