Trailblazer Setup for HDB <--[NO! NO! NO!] for the UNIX PC

[Bob Ames]

In article <1117 at ditka.UUCP> kls at ditka.UUCP (Karl Swartz) writes:
>
>AT&T does *not* sell HoneyDanBer for the UNIX PC.  They ship the
>stock System V uucp with the machine, which is buggy as hell, and
>refuse to ship HDB, which works nearly flawlessly, because they
>don't want to have the extra support task.

I just signed up for the toolchest and that's the exact reason they
attribute to the Toolchest's existance, because they don't want
the extra support work.

>You can of course spend $3000 on sources (10 times what I paid
>for an entire UNIX PC!) and then do your own hacking to adapt it
>to the UNIX PC, unless they'd be charitable enough to sell you
>the already ported version.
>
>If AT&T's attitude towards UNIX PC customers is typical of their
>attitude towards *all* computer customers, they're going to have
>to start giving stuff away one of these days -- because nobody
>will be willing to pay to endure AT&T's contemptful attitude.
>
>(There are, of course, good people inside AT&T.  But you have to
>dig and go under the table to reach them.)

OK, everybody.  If we want HDB, let's all get together and send a
joint letter to AT&T saying that we'll each pay $x for the binaries.

We don't need support, except for maybe a correct manual   ( 1/2 |-) )

It won't cost them anything to make it available to us, we could
easily handle distributing the thing - I'll bet one of us will
volunteer to act as the distributor if they chose to allow us to
have it for free.

How much would we be willing to pay to be allowed to use this UUCP?
I think $30-50 would cover it.  It could be handled through the
Documentation Center (Now called Customer Information Center),
which already handles distributions of UNIX PC software such as
the 3.0 UNIX upgrade.

I consider HDB about as mandatory as Objective Programming's
(203-866-6900) Objective Utilities.  I've used Unremove at least
3 times in the last month!  Unremove alone is worth the price of
the whole package.  Or smail.  Or rn.  How/Why should we be stuck
with the stock software when it would be so easy for them to
release the good stufff.  Especially since the software has already
been written and runs quite adequately.  Further, supplying this
machine with the stock uucp is a security nightmare.

Oh I know, because they own it and can do whatever they want.  Well,
they promised us that this was the UNIX box for the masses.  It
seems they should support it with a decent UUCP.

How many of us would buy HDB?  If only 1000 people bought it for
$30, it would bring in $30,000.  I know of a few companies that
would go right out and get HDB for all of their machines if it was
available.  It seems like AT&T could make big bucks by selling 
this thing.

Please oh please please please release HDB to us, AT&T.

Bob

Bob Ames  The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, NORML 
"Pot is the world's best source of complete protein, alcohol fuel, and paper,
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619-743-2546 "We each pay a fabulous price for our visions of paradise," Rush