Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!mcmi!hdr!unocss!jw009
From: jw009@unocss.UUCP (Mike McMahon)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: Who should pay for upgrades?
Message-ID: <455@unocss.UUCP>
Date: 21 Oct 88 20:32:10 GMT
References: <2702@skivs.UUCP>
Organization: U. of Nebraska at Omaha
Lines: 44

From article <2702@skivs.UUCP>, by dr@skivs.UUCP (David Robins):
> In article <Oct.19.17.56.04.1988.27523@elbereth.rutgers.edu> joseph@elbereth.rutgers.edu (Seymour Joseph) writes:
>>Since I own all five of these, if there is a charge levied for the
>>upgrade I am going to be quite angry (and poor). 
> 
> This is a problem I have with upgrades.  When Apple changes the
> operating system, the software companies have to fix their products to
> accommodate the change.  Can they be expected to also foot the bill

	I was under the impression that Apple has mandated certain standards,
and that if a developer conforms to the standard he is in no danger of having
problems with later releases.  There may be exceptions but, by and large,
there is no reason to throw the standards out the window.  PLEASE...correct me
me if I am blatantly incorrect.
        Incidentally, Apple ought to be congratulated for being organized
enough to make the standards work.  It had to have been quite an effort to
coordinate all the toolsets, interface guidelines, etc...the Toolbox Reference
is HUGE, and quite impressive besides.

>
> Therefore, I can see the company paying for fixes to a faulty product
> when updates are available.  I think probably the user should foot the
> bill (hopefully small) for UPGRADES to products that operate under new

        If the program is FAULTY (i.e. breaks because of something the
developer did outside Apple's standards) the developer should foot the bill.
Period.
	A nominal fee for most UPGRADES isn't out of line ($5-$15 is fine, but
if developers would be willing to charge only for the disk--wow!); however, if
more developers would adopt a method that is convenient to both their company
and to the end users, a lot of problems involving costs could be avoided.  For
example, use the extensive networks that have been built to distribute up-
grades to registered users.  GEnie, CompuServe, or even the InterNet would
work just fine.  Several people do this already, I think...Glen Bredon among
them.  Dave Lyons makes good use of the facilities as well.  (By the way,
Dave, thanks for staying on top of everything; Keith can certainly use the
assistance when things get congested!)
	That approach only works well for "diffs" in most cases--offloading an
entire 800k program onto a network could be problematic.  Maybe make them
available for anonymous FTP to registered users?

> David Robins, M.D.  (ophthalmologist / electronics engineer)

--Mike