pvallis@hpcupt1.HP.COM (Paul Vallis) (07/03/90)
I recently sent a letter to Impulse Inc. regarding some concerns I had with the usability of one of their products, Turbo Silver. I wanted to let the Amiga community know the POSITIVE response I received from Impulse, Inc. Mike Halverson, the president of the company, personally called me and took the time to address my concerns. I was a bit harsh in my letter to them and my conversation with Mike revealed several things that I hadn't taken into account. I wanted to share these things with you. The community of Amiga developers is dwindling at this point and (although Impulse, Inc. is NOT one of them) many of these developers are having a tough time staying afloat. This is primarily due to the small customer base that these developers can sell to (compared to the PC or MAC community). It would be very easy for these developers to leave the Amiga community and develop for those other machines. Bottom line, we Amiga users need to "protect and encourage" our developers to "keep up the good work" and "hang in there." This applies to ALL Amiga developers, not just Impulse, Inc. When Turbo Silver was "born," the company which developed it hadn't had much experience in the area of usability. Being a fairly small company they didn't have the resources to devote to extensive usability testing of their product (Turbo Silver) before it went to market. They have received many constructive suggestions on how the product can be improved and they have put a lot of time and effort into addressing those concerns with their new product, "Imagine" which is due out soon. Products such as Turbo Silver bring to our Amigas (at consumer affordable prices) capabilities which are normally found only in VERY expensive software packages on VERY expensive computers. While I still believe that my usability concerns with Turbo Silver are valid, I'm convinced that many of them will be addressed by the soon to be released Impulse, Inc. product, "Imagine." I would like to publicly thank Mike Halverson (president of Impulse, Inc.) for taking the time to personally speak with a concerned user. If the president of this company cares enough to personally call me about my letter, then I'm convinced they care enough to REALLY LISTEN and RESPOND to the input their users have given them. And I have confidence that "Imagine" will be quite a product! I plan to upgrade. Developers like this deserve our support. Regards, Paul Vallis