engelke@uf-csv.UUCP (charles engelke [fac]) (12/04/84)
>I will not cut it out already! My biggest complaint about him and his >column is the way he reviews software and hardware that he is given >free. Respectable magazines (and to my knowledge BYTE is included) >buy, or accept just as a loaner, things that they review. For >example, Consumer Reports acts just like an average consumer, and >Car and Driver doesn't get to keep all those cars they test do they? > > Bjorn Benson > ..!uw-beaver!teltone!dataio!bjorn A software review is very different from a product review. I'm sure that Consumer Reports has a lot of reasons for the way they get their test samples, but one of the most important is that by buying the products themselves they are more likely to get a representative product rather than a specially built model just for them. Another reason is that they get to review the products _they_ want to review, rather than the products that the manufacturers want them to review. (The loaner cars Car and Driver accepts don't satify either reason.) The first reason does not usually apply to software. One copy of Wordstar is the same as another (the exception is when the review copy is an early, unreleased version). There is no need to get the software independently. The second reason _does_ apply to software, of course, and it would be very nice if BYTE had the budget to permit Pournelle to buy several thousand dollars worth of software for each issue. Since they don't, we just have to live with the consequences, which are not too severe in this case. I'm willing to bet that Jerry Pournelle and BYTE can get review copies of whatever they want just by asking. Software reviews are very similar to book reviews for the above reasons, and Jerry Pournelle is doing exactly what every book reviewer does. No one seems to think that a book reviewer is unduly influenced by being given a free copy -- I don't see why there should be a fuss about software reviewers acting the same way. Charles Engelke UUCP: ..!akgua!uf-csv!engelke CSNET: engelke@ufl
bjorn@dataio.UUCP (Bjorn Benson) (12/07/84)
> A software review is very different from a product review... I do not see how a software review is different than a product review in this case: software is a product. Consumer Reports buys their products so that they can review what they want to, Jerry Pournelle looks in his In-Basket and reviews what he wants to -- the only difference being that one buys it and the other gets it free. > Software reviews are very similar to book reviews for the above reasons, > and Jerry Pournelle is doing exactly what every book reviewer does. Software reviews are similar to book reviews but not exactly the same: First, software is a good deal more expensive ($40 to $495) than books ($3 to $10). Second, sofware is used time and time again (for example, I use my editor everyday) whereas books are read once, and maybe a couple more times in the future (in general). Thus, the reviewer is getting a great deal more for writing a review of software than a review of a book, which brings up... > No one seems to think that a book reviewer is unduly influenced by being > given a free copy -- I don't see why there should be a fuss about software > reviewers acting the same way. And yes, I agree, for a single instance, a software reviewer does not give a biased viewpoint because he is a reviewer. But... (and this is my main argument) Jerry Pournell gets ALL his stuff free (or cheap) and has the executives and engineers from most of the major software companies fawning over him. This gives him a biased view of the industry, and this can not help but show up in his reviews. > ...and it would be very nice if BYTE had the budget to permit Pournelle to > buy several thousand dollars worth of software for each issue. Yes, it would be nice. But they can't, and so the editors should be very careful in checking that the reviews are unbiased and that the special status the employees of BYTE have do not unduly affect their articles. Bjorn Benson ..!uw-beaver!teltone!dataio!bjorn