🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <2146@sunquest.UUCP>, whm@sunquest.UUCP (Bill Mitchell) writes:
 > 
 > Ooh!  I've been waiting for someone to ask a question like that.
 > 
 > My wife set up a home office to do some accounting work and she needed a PC.
 > I'd always thought it would be fun to have a UNIX system at home, so
I killed
 > two birds with one stone and got a Dell 325 and Dell UNIX.  Unfortunately, I
 > think I must have bought it from the wrong Dell or something.
 > 
 > The first bad experience I had was in simply getting the system
shipped.  When
 > shopping around for a vendor, I was told it took about a week to make a 325.
 > When I placed the order, I was told it would take a little under two weeks.
 > It actually took about three weeks.  This wouldn't usually have been
bad, but
 > for income tax purposes, we wanted to have system in hand by 12/31/89.  It
 > wasn't uncommon to get conflicting information about the order status.  For
 > example, I called one day and they said the system was ready to ship and the
 > following day they said the system was still in production.

I am sorry it took so long to get your system shipped.
 > 
 > The second bad experience I had involved vp/ix.  Before buying the system, I
 > asked the sales rep how good vp/ix was.  Her initial response was basically 
 > "it runs every DOS program with no problems".  I was astounded by this and I
 > asked her to check further and verify this.  She checked further and replied
 > that "Well, you might have some problems with programs that use a bunch of
 > memory, like 1-2-3r3, but that's about it."  When I got the machine, I tried
 > some DOS programs on it and about the only thing that worked well enough to
 > use was a demo using Bricklin's(?) package.  I called up technical
support and
 > they said, "Well, vp/ix really doesn't work too good.  If you want to do
 > anything serious, you'd better just use DOS."
 
I don't think anyone in Dell UNIX Tech Support, would have told you that
VP/ix is not an ends all perfect DOS emulator.  VP/ix will run most
packages that
don't bypass bios calls, but I don't think that anyone would tell you
that every 
package runs perfectly.  And I would also tell you that if you want to
do serious
DOS work, DOS is better for that than VP/ix.
 > 
 > The third bad experience I had was with Dell's X windows.  I can't
remember a
 > session using X that hasn't required a reboot (or N) to cure occurrences of
 > catatonia.

I don't know what is going on with your X-windows session, but if you
had called
Dell UNIX Tech Support with your problem, somebody could have helped.  I run
X-windows all day every day, and I never have to reboot to fix an X-windows
problem.  In fact the only time I log out of X-windows is when I have to reboot
my system while simulating a customer problem (ruptime shows that my machine
has been up for 5 days).
 > 
 > The fourth bad experience and my favorite one to relate regarded the
tape drive.
 > Here's the way I explained it to Dell technical suport: "I just purchased a
 > Dell 325 with Dell's 150Mb tape.  The tape works fine under Dell UNIX, but
 > under DOS, the tape software says 'No tape controller present'."  The first
 > response I got out of technical support was "If the tape wasn't
written under
 > DOS, the system thinks the tape controller is dead."  I was given a sequence
 > of commands to reformat the tape for DOS.  I was skeptical about this, but
 > I didn't know much about PCs, so I went home that night and tried it.  Same
 > problem: 'No tape controller present'.  I called back the following day and
 > described the problem again.  One thing led to another and for two
and one-half
 > hours, I followed Dell's over-the-phone instructions to try track down the
 > problem.  I forget the final approach and landing, but the problem
turned out
 > to be that I just needed to configure the DOS tape software to use interrupt
 > address 338, not 300.

Our default address for a Wangtek controller is 300 in a DOS machine, the
default address in a UNIX machine is 338, this is due to UNIX networking 
considerations.  It is unfortuneate that the tech(s) that you talked to didn't
know this.  I will try and inform them so problems like this don't reoccur.
 > 
 > So, for a question who's answer was "In the tape program, use address 338
 > instead of 300", Dell jerked me around on the phone for over two hours.  If

How many other companies would spend over two hours with you on the phone, to
help you fix a configuration problem?

 > that's industry leading technical support, I hate to think what industry
 > trailing technical support must be like.  I have to admit that I made one
 > mistake in the middle of the ordeal: I inverted the reading of a DIP switch,
 > but I'd like to think that a company with expertise in dealing with novice
 > PC maintainers would be on the lookout for that type of mistake.
 > 
 > I guess I could go on, but the problems I've had have been hardware
 > independent; the system itself seems pretty solid.  Dell UNIX, which is
 > apparently Interactive UNIX, only cost me $800 and for that price, I don't
 > guess I can complain about it too much.  (Not to mention that the
file system
 > is really a humper!)  But if I need any technical support, I'll think
I'll use
 > a ten-minute time limit with the Dell experts and then post to
comp.unix.i386.

I won't tell you that UNIX support can solve every problem in < 10 minutes,
but my records show that you have never talked to anyone in UNIX support. 
 > 
 > So would buy a Dell again?  I was pretty close to sending the thing back
 > under the 30-day NQA refund policy just on the grounds of pure infuriation,
 > but I kept it.  I have to believe that my sales and support
experiences are the
 > exception rather than the rule and most likely due to Dell's
inexperience with
 > UNIX.  They probably do a great job when they stick with DOS; they've
certainly

It is true that our normal techsupport is inexperienced with UNIX, that
is why we 
have a separate UNIX support group, which you have never talked to.  You are 
still under your 90 days free UNIX support contract, so if you have any
questions,
give us a call.

 > got surveys that say so.  So, yeah, I'd get a Dell again.  As a
matter of fact,
 > I recently recommended one to a friend (that I'm not trying to get rid of).
 > --------------------------------------------------------------------
 > Bill Mitchell				whm@sunquest.com
 > (and my opinions are not necessarily shared by)
 > Sunquest Information Systems		sunquest!whm@arizona.edu
 > 930 N. Finance Center Dr.               {arizona,uunet}!sunquest!whm
 > Tucson, AZ, 85710                       602-885-7700

John Steczkowski
Dell Unix Customer Support  P#: (512) 343-3571
9505 Arboretum Blvd.	    !s: uunet!dell!hotwheel!stecz
Austin, Texas 78759	    @s: stecz@hotwheel.dell.com