Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!hi-csc!tim
From: tim@tim.UUCP (Tim Giebelhaus)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo
Subject: Re: APR's and patches
Message-ID: <353@apcimsp.UUCP>
Date: 17 Apr 89 06:03:00 GMT
References: <13047@watdragon.waterloo.edu> <331@tim.UUCP> <13266@watdragon.waterloo.edu>
Reply-To: tim@apcimsp.UUCP (Tim Giebelhaus)
Organization: mpls
Lines: 40

In article <13266@watdragon.waterloo.edu> dvadura@watdragon.waterloo.edu (Dennis Vadura) writes:
>>2) This would make patches available to people who do not pay for
>>   service (perhaps raising the cost to those who do pay).
>You've hit a sore spot with me.  I believe in a supplier standing by
>their product.  To me this means that if you release SR10.x and you ask
>me to pay money to get that release, I should get patches to that release
>free of charge (perhaps this is too naive a view on my part, but hey, when
>an automaker makes a car, and recalls it because the brakes are faulty,
>ALL SUCH CARS ARE FIXED FREE OF CHARGE TO THE OWNER!).  This does not
>mean that I should get the next OS release free of charge, but patches to
>the current release that I paid for should be free.
Well, Apollo could increase the cost of each release so that the cost of
patches and phone support was included in the release, but is that what
people really want.  I would not suggest seperating the phone support
from the patch support except for very experienced customers.  I am no
policy maker for Apollo in any case, though.  

I may be wrong about this, but for car recalls, isn't it true that 
recalls only happen for safty problems?  

>>3) It would make patches difficult to control.  That is, patches
>>   are dangerous as they are not fully tested.  Installing many
>God I hope not!  If I get a patch from Apollo I expect it to work, and fix
>the problem, not create a new one!  If there is danger of a patch not
>working, then DON'T ISSUE IT!
Now this is just the definition of a patch.  Apollo takes all their
patches puts them together, tests them, and distributes them in a 
maintenance release (though other stuff will probably be in the release
too).  So if you want fully tested stuff, you wait for the release
which fixes your problem.  If you can't wait for the testing of the 
fix for you problem, you install the patch.  

This is why I would want the hot line involved with the release of
patches.  They can work with the customer to explain any known side
effects and work with the customer if there are any new side effects
which crop up.   
-- 
UUCP: uunet!hi-csc!apcimsp!tim
ARPA: tim@apollo.com
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