Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sunybcs!uhura.cc.rochester.edu!ur-valhalla!moscom!tmb From: tmb@moscom.UUCP (Tom Bellucco) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st Subject: Re: User support? Re: harddisk-backup Message-ID: <2028@moscom.UUCP> Date: 27 Feb 90 13:30:28 GMT References: <8533@pogo.WV.TEK.COM> Reply-To: tmb@moscom.UUCP (Tom Bellucco) Organization: Moscom Corp., E. Rochester, NY Lines: 48 In article <8533@pogo.WV.TEK.COM> bluneski@pogo.WV.TEK.COM (Bob Luneski) writes: > >In <"90-02-09-11:06:10.92*UK14"@DKAUNI2.BITNET> O. Steinmeier writes: > >>... >>So, if you know a reliable, fast, cheap (PD or shareware preferred) >>harddisk backup program, would you send me a message? > >So you want it to be fast, reliable, and do everything but wash the kitchen >sink but you don't want to pay for it???? Typical. > >Besides the TOTAL lack of support from Atari Corp.(products, marketing, and >distribution) the single most important factor contributing to the decline >(and eventual death unless something changes) of the ST is the unwillingness >of users to PAY for quality software. NOBODY wants to develop software for >a machine that you can only sell 500 copies of a program before it's on half >the bulletin boards across the country. > While I agree with your point about many users not willing to pay for quality software, I don't think you had to jump on this guy to make it. There's nothing to indicate that he was not going to pay for a shareware product. Maybe he feels the best value is in the shareware/PD market. And asking for fast and reliable software is not asking for much!!!! The way that I see it is that most ST owners bought their ST because of it's value (translation: it was priced lower than everything else). You will find tons of college students owning STs, and I've seen hundreds of messages from those students saying "I'm a poor college student and can't afford to pay for this piece of software. Does anyone know where I could find something comparable in the PD or as shareware?" At first I wondered why Publishing Partner (remember that?) came out without a HP laser printer driver (I couldn't believe it had a Postscript driver!), but I read somewhere that the company felt that most ST owners could not afford a laser printer and that the Postscript driver was for the serious desktop publisher, and for their own use. If Softlogic really said that, I don't know, but that is what I'm talking about. Maybe this is why the ST has trouble attracting the big name software developers. They know that someone who paid $600 for a complete system won't pay $300-$500 for their software. -- Tom Bellucco - moscom!tmb@cs.rochester.edu or {...}!rochester!moscom!tmb ------------------------------------- "Whatever I said, I didn't mean it...unless, of course, you liked it!" #include