🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <25099@apple.Apple.COM>, mjohnson@Apple.COM (Mark Johnson) writes:
> In article <sXtTiQy00WB3IbtGJS@andrew.cmu.edu> aa0s+@andrew.cmu.edu (Adel Talaat Assaad) writes:
>
...(Stuff about high prices, incl. VERY high technote prices)...
 
> Okay, I decided to take a look at the new APDA catalog and I too am a bit
> perturbed.  I am the one who edits the Notes and I don't like to see the
> work we put out and information we want out for free to be used as a profit
> center.  I've voiced my complaints and will resort to posting the actual
> source files so you can print them all exactly as they come out on paper if
...
> and let them know your displeasure.  Thanks for your support.
> 
> This message, of course, is not endorsed or acknowledged by my employer.
>  
> 
> 
> Mark B. Johnson                                           AppleLink: m.johnson
> Developer Technical Support                         domain: mjohnson@Apple.com
> Apple Computer, Inc.         UUCP:  {amdahl,decwrl,sun,unisoft}!apple!mjohnson
> 
Thank you for YOUR support, Mark.  I seriously considered abandoning the
Apple line of products altogether after the shoddy tricks Apple has pulled 
recently.  Your posting goes (some ways) to restoring my faith in human
nature, or at least the spirit of Apple.

Apple has contiuously and without hesitation messed up everything it has
done concerning APDA.  First, they appointed some bozo little operation
working out of a hole-in-the-wall (I know--I've been to the original APDA
shipping centre) as a monopolistic distributor of a bunch of very important
Apple stuff.  I mean, the old APDA was affiliated with (part of) a company
that initialized single-sided disks in bulk, and sold them as double-sided,
and for all I know, used those same disks to ship it's software.  Then,
when that bozo little operation finally started getting it's act together
(and they had REALLY improved since the formation of APDA, and were
continuing to improve), Apple moves in, takes it over, and raises all the
prices on what are supposed to be accessible items (such as the tech notes--
I guess the current paper shortage, coupled with the falling US dollar, has
compelled Apple to invest heavily in the pulp & paper industry to
guarantee is supply, right? :-(  ).  I don't care about things like MPW,
that is a product and Apple should charge whatever it wants to for it, but
those tech note prices just about made me choke, especially since I now
want the paper technotes (they would go so well with the looseleaf Inside Mac).

Then there is the matter of the new Certified Developer program.  I don't
mind Apple charging what it costs to maintain the program, but I don't need
$600/year of support!  Or if I do, I'd prefer to pay for it as I get it,
not pay one flat sum assuming I will use that kind of service.  Making it
more difficult for developers to get hardware at a discount is also a stupid
move--by their nature, developers need the latest (or in fact all) of the
Mac CPUs, just so they can get their software verified on those machines.
If apple closes out this opportunity, many small developers will be unable
to do the amount of testing they might want to, resulting in buggy software,
and in the long run, a marketplace that is distrustful of the Macintosh
system.  (And remember, small developers tend to come up with the really
innovative utilities which really do need to be tested on all machines,
because of their low-level complexity.)  Sure, Apple needs to be able to
screen out people who just want a discount on the hardware, but surely
someone who can point to a 300k program with an obvious market niche and
say, "I did that," should be taken seriously, without the need for a $600/
year initiation fee.

Apple seems to have adopted a policy of purposely alienating its small
developers.  This is dangerous.  Lots of the best ideas come from these
small developers.  They also tend to be the best programmers, and are
quite capable of taking their skills elsewere and prospering, if they
decide Apple has made their working environment too hostile.  IBM and
Microsoft are finally delivering products that can challenge the Apple
line and in some ways surpass it, and if Apple drives its devoted coterie
of small developers to the IBM world, it will have time to regret, but not
retract, its actions.

'Nuff said.

Ken McDonald
{...!ubc-cs!mcdonald@fornax.uucp}
.