🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <5636@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> seitz@cory.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (Matthew Eric Seitz) writes:
>
>	As more and more time goes by without the push, more people begin to
>doubt the future of the ST.  This means new products aren't developed which
>makes more people doubt the future of the ST, etc.  It's that little
>has changed which is the problem.
>
>	This is damning with faint praise.  Not only does Atari need to stop
>making announcements too far in advance, they also need to release new products,
>especially those they have been talking about for so long.

It's really ironic.  At the last major computer show, Atari, following
its new no-vaporware policy, did *not* display the non-product ABAQ,
nor the rumored 68030/*nix box.  This was immediately interpreted as a
product cancellation by many.  In fact, it represents a verifiable
commitment on the part of Atari to *not* show unavailable products.

Sometimes, you just can't win, no matter what you do.
>
>	Unfortunately Neil Harris was also hinting about something new on the
>horizon.  I would love to see all the good things Roy's talking about, I hope
>I will see them, most of the time I think I will see them.  But until I can walk
>into a store and buy them, they're just talk.

There's good news.  For the first time that I can remember, I have
seen a television commercial for the Atari 1040ST!  It was shown in the
San Francisco area, I think at 6:30 last Saturday, I can't recall the
station.  The advert compared the cost/byte of the 1040 versus the
Macintosh and the IBM PC, and displayed the slogan "Business is War".

I saw a second commercial later in the week for the 7800 video game.
It seems that Atari has decided that there *is* a market worth
persuing in the U.S.

Furthermore, Atari is becoming a strong presence at Desktop Publishing
conferences, with the lowest-priced entry-level system.

>	A company's support is important to user's and developer's ( and
>developer support is important to users).  A company's support gives user's
>the confidence to buy the machine.  This, along with company support, encourages
>developer support of the machine.  Develper support give's the user even more
>confidence to buy the machine, which encourages more developer support.  Either
>way, a good cycle or a bad cycle begins with the manufacturer.

Yes, but part of that developer support includes not obsoleting a
company's current products by making changes to the O.S. which break
existing software.  Atari has demonstrated their understanding of that
fact, even in the face of the pressure seen here and elsewhere to do
otherwise.  That is *true* developer support.

Atari has placed the value of end-users with an investment in software
over the wishes of a few of us knowledgable about the internals of the
system.  The perception of the outside community, that Atari improved
the operating system without breaking existing code, will be worth far
more in the long run than a few insiders knowing that they did it
"right", but broke dozens of products.

>	What's so terrible about this?  Isn't it usual to expect a company
>to help the customer, whether he be a user or a developer.  I'm sure David
>is aware that negative comments may affect sales.  However, in the long run,
>being honest about a company's problems as well as it's strengths makes your
>opinion worth hearing.  Ignoring the problems won't make them go away.
>Support has to work both ways.

Atari Corp. is ready, willing, and able to help the customer with a
legitimate problem with their hardware.  They cannot be held
responsible for defects in software they didn't write.  They also
can't help customers who don't tell them there is a problem.  We see a
lot of that on the net: someone has a hardware problem, and
immediately gripes to the net, before he has even contacted Atari
about a fix.  How is that fair to Atari?

I have yet to see *anyone* complain that they went to Atari for help,
and came away unsatisfied.


Greg Wageman			ARPA:  greg%sentry@spar.slb.com
Schlumberger Technologies	BIX:   gwage
1601 Technology Drive		CIS:   74016,352
San Jose, CA 95110		GEnie: GWAGEMAN
(408) 437-5198			UUCP: ...!decwrl!spar!sentry!greg
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