peterd@cs.mcgill.ca (Peter Deutsch) (01/12/91)
As some of you may have seen, I posted a couple of days ago concerning our lack of support from NeXT for our efforts in providing an X port for the NeXT. In passing, I added a comment about the current debate on copy protection, sparked by a posting from Pencomm asking for copy protection info. I mentioned that we had provided Pencomm with our X code and made a joking reference about calling the lawyers if they used copy protection. I have received several letters about this comment, including one from the guy we've been dealing with at Pencomm and it appears that this comment was not taken in the spirit in which it was made. It was a joke, made in passing. I was only trying to make clear that we at SOCS have been exploring any avenue we could think of for making X available, including working on our own port, cooperating with others on a port and asking NeXT to do a port, all without success. The crack about Pencomm's copy protection post was _not_ intended to imply that they were ripping off our code. I have spoken to a developer there and exchanged email with the company and I look forward to examining their product with an eye to purchasing. I have no reason to believe they are anything but an honourable firm, working on a needed product. I'm sorry if I left the impression that I was serious about the lawyer crack. I have assurances from Pencomm that they did not use our code in their final product and I have no intention of pursuing this issue with them. I congratulate them on their efforts, I welcome their announced intention to _not_ use copy protection and look forward to receiving their offered evaluation copy. From what I've just been told about both their server and their price they should have a winner and if so, and if I get no other response on X that more suits our needs in the meantime, I expect I will be recommending to SOCS that the school buy from them. This still doesn't let NeXT off the hook, because that last sentence still has a lot of "if's" in it. I still don't have X, nor do I see any real committment from NeXT to help provide it. More generally, as a major client I have found it difficult to complete a big programming project on the machine, despite my best efforts and promises from NeXT of help. I think this is due to growing pains, and I'm trying to be patient, but I saw too many postings asking or speculating about X and I felt I owed all you comp.sys.next readers my experiences. After all, my loyalties are not to NeXT, but to my university and the other net readers who help me make it all work. Several people have also written and suggested I speak with Ron Weissman, director of Higher Ed Sales for NeXT. Although I had intended to send a letter to him outlining the details that I ended up posting I have not yet done so. Still, he must be aware of the X issue and McGill's problems. After all, he is the guy who wrote the letter I was given six months ago promising X support in some form and I have certainly made enough noise to NeXT that someone must have mentioned the issue to him. I'm sorry if people at NeXT thinks I'm washing our linen in public, but I have spoken to the East coast sales director, the Director of third party support (I can't remember his exact title) and others, as has the guy doing the port. I have received undertaking which have not been met and I think they should be calling me. I love the machines, I just want and _need_ to be able run X on them. Once I can, in whatever form that takes, I'll be glad to tell the world to buy more of their machines. I'm just tired of having to wait, as my new lab is here, half the machines are already in service and we're starting a new semester. I need a 68040 version of X now. - peterd ^X ^I .signature -------------------------------------------------------------------------- +-------+ Peter Deutsch McGill University | u # u | peterd@cs.mcgill.ca School of Computer Science |/\/\/\/| | a a | "From MAILER-DAEMON@hq.demos.su Thu Sep 13 00:45:55 MSD 1990" \ a / \___/ The day we made contact.... -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Look! I can type after the signature!