🚀 go-pugleaf

Subj: open this package and you're stuck with it

nelson_p@apollo.HP.COM (Peter Nelson) writes

nM>   Part of the problem is that the manufacturers are abusing the 
nM>   "you open it, you can't return it" clause on their packaging.  
nM>   The implicit licensing agreement is supposed to protect them 
nM>   from unauthorized copying but it provides them with an excuse
nM>   to ship expensive junky products knowing that they can't be 
nM>   returned.  If I spend $350 on a TV and I'm not satisfied I can
      ^^^^^^^^
nM>   return it; if I spend $350 on a C++ compiler I'm stuck with it
nM>   no matter how dissatisfying it is.    This has to change.  Software
nM>   is an increasingly big business and consumers of software deserve
nM>   the same rights and protections that they get for other products.

Well, not entirely true!  I bought the Microsoft FORTRAN compiler
to move some software from VAX/VMS to MS-DOS -- something the MS
advertising said their FORTRAN could handle, since it recognized
the VAX/VMS extensions. True, it DID recognize the extensions,
but it was unable to handle a decent sized symbol table --
something one takes for granted under VAX/VMS.

After following Microsoft's action plan (in which they
unsuccessfully tried to get my program to compile), Microsoft
finally authorized the dealer to REFUND my money.

Although Microsoft started by saying it was against their policy
to take software back and give refunds, it is to their credit
that they escalated the problem to head office, proposed an action
plan and then followed through on it.

I think they may have also stopped promoting the VAX/VMS
capability of their compiler at the same time!  After all,
there's more to it than simply parsing the same language syntax!

bradley.grigor@canremote.uucp  :  ALEX is coming to Toronto in April.
Newmarket, Ontario, Canada     :  TelePoker will be there - will YOU?
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