VP/ix could be good...

[Jim Morton]

In article <5980005 at hplsla.HP.COM>, jeffh at hplsla.HP.COM (Jeff Harrell) writes:
>        1) Support- I do not like being placed on hold for 15-30
>                    minutes only to be told I can get an "appointment"
>                    in two to three days. It's been my experience that
>                    the person on the other end of the line ( the one
>                    that calls back in a couple of days ) knows less
>                    about VP/ix than I do.

I can sympathize with you, I've been there on hold myself. What I'd like to
hear from people is, knowing how early releases of software are generally
unstable, what would you like to see for support? Let's keep in mind
viable solutions - If SCO has 10,000 VP/ix customers they can't hire
5,000 support people. Would you rather:
	1) Wait on hold indefinitely to get to speak to a real, live,
	   developer that knows what's going on because he/she wrote
	   the code
	2) Just get a busy signal, like the old days
	3) Have access to a dial-up bulletin board system to read
	   general fixes and leave messages and maybe get a reply
	4) Have access to a dial-up bulletin board system to read
	   the entire outstanding SPR list on the product
	5) Not have had a product (like VP/ix) until it was really,
	   really stable - say a year or so later than products
	   are getting released today.
	6) Get beta releases early, cheaper, with an upgrade fee to
	   the final release, and knowing that you will be using
	   shaky software with limited (or no) support.
It really is a dilemma - people want new software fast but some are not
willing to accept the consequences. *Good* beta site testers are invaluable,
beta sites who just want a release of a product earlier can be the worst
PR possible for a product. I'd love to hear some discussion on this, and
this is probably not the best newsgroup for it. And please don't just say
"I just want a product that works, period." - we ALL do.

--
Jim Morton, APPLiX Inc., Westboro, MA
UUCP: ...harvard!m2c!applix!jim
      jim at applix.m2c.org