[comp.sys.next] Who's Driving Out There, Anyway?

anderson@macc.wisc.edu (Jess Anderson) (04/25/91)

In article <562@rosie.NeXT.COM> cmacaskl@gehenna (Chris
McAskill) writes:

>All machines within the same organization may use a single
>Update Set to upgrade to 2.1 provided that the purchaser of
>all the machines and the single Update Set are the same.
>Thus a corporation and a university need only buy a single
>Update Set for all their employees.

That seems reasonable.

>Individual purchasers who happen to work at a corporation or
>university will need to buy individual Update Sets.

That seems intensely *un*reasonable.

>Sorry for the hassles.

I'm assuming it's not your personal fault.  However, it's
your ear we have, so it's your ear that gets to hear the
yowling.  I hope your esteemed employer rethinks this a
little, and right away.

>.. Gettin' my flame suit on ...

As well you might.  I bought 2.0 for my home machine about
60 days ago.  Now NeXT is about to nick me for their sins of
omission and commission by charging me (and can it really be
$50?) for an upgrade to expiate those sins?  Excuse me?
Even Microsoft, not known for excessive generosity in its
upgrade policies, doesn't go *that* far!  I am not a
skinflint or anything, but I get outraged when people burrow
into my pocketbook because they expect me to just go along
with any gag they happen to offer.  This policy is absurd,
and the two different policies for individual and
corporate/educational buyers, taken together, is an absurdum
almost too great to be believed.  It can't even *pretend* to
be rational.

I mean, I have a university NeXT in my office.  I can
connect right up to it from where I'm sitting at home, in
fact I will have to, since I don't have a floppy drive here.
And yet you want me to pay, not only under these ridiculous
pseudo-rationales, but for something on a medium I can't
directly use, besides.

For pete sakes, get your both feet on the ground!
Somebody out there is simply not running things.

<> Poetry is the mixture of common sense, which not all
<> have, with an uncommon sense, which very few have.
<> -- John Masefield
--
Jess Anderson <> Madison Academic Computing Center <> University of Wisconsin
Internet: anderson@macc.wisc.edu <-best, UUCP:{}!uwvax!macc.wisc.edu!anderson
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Room 3130 <> 1210 West Dayton Street / Madison WI 53706 <> Phone 608/262-5888

madler@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Mark Adler) (04/25/91)

Jess Anderson flames:
>> 60 days ago.  Now NeXT is about to nick me for their sins of
>> omission and commission by charging me (and can it really be
>> $50?) for an upgrade to expiate those sins?  Excuse me?

NeXT claims that the $50 is "just the cost of the media".  Of course,
they're using media that's overpriced by about a factor of eight.
This would all be much less of a problem if they would sell it on
1.44M floppies for $10 or less, which they could.  I doubt most
people would complain about the price then.

But, I suspect NeXT has some other weird policy that they *have* to
use 2.88M floppies since that's supposed to be a selling point of
their machines.

Mark Adler
madler@pooh.caltech.edu

DWN2@psuvm.psu.edu (04/25/91)

In article <1991Apr25.073231.10072@nntp-server.caltech.edu>,
madler@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Mark Adler) says:

>NeXT claims that the $50 is "just the cost of the media".  Of course,
>they're using media that's overpriced by about a factor of eight.
>This would all be much less of a problem if they would sell it on
>1.44M floppies for $10 or less, which they could.  I doubt most
>people would complain about the price then.

>Mark Adler
>madler@pooh.caltech.edu

Yes, and if NeXT would make these disks readable in MSDOS format so that
those of us without floppy drives (remember us - 030 cube owners?) could
at least kermit them over from a PC, I'd be a happy camper!

If Franz and others releasing upgrades would follow the same advise, it
would make things much easier on us.

Heck, I'd even be willing to send NeXT an OD to put the stuff on, but fear,
given their track record for promptness, I wouldn't see the disk until
Christmas.

Dave

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+ Dave Norton                       o      e-mail to dwn2@psuvm.psu.edu +
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+ Penn State University          ()/ ()   % Engineering Visualization % +
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asd@mace.cc.purdue.edu (Kareth) (04/26/91)

In <91115.070412DWN2@psuvm.psu.edu> DWN2@psuvm.psu.edu writes:

>Heck, I'd even be willing to send NeXT an OD to put the stuff on, but fear,
>given their track record for promptness, I wouldn't see the disk until
>Christmas.

HA!  Forget that!  I called em up, with that exact suggestion.  The
guy said I could buy the $50 upgrade, but they aren't taking OD's and
putting the new stuff on them.  Said the only option was buying it.
So much for service!

-k

bb@math.ufl.edu (Brian Bartholomew) (04/30/91)

madler@pooh.caltech.edu (Mark Adler) writes:

> But, I suspect NeXT has some other weird policy that they *have* to
> use 2.88M floppies since that's supposed to be a selling point of
> their machines.

I agree with this statement.  It seems that even NeXT is not
completely immune to the "Not Invented Here" syndrome.


--
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo."
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