🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <60246@mimsy.umd.edu> alex@cs.umd.edu (Alex Blakemore) writes:
> I was told Wednesday by a supervisor in the orders dept at NeXT that
> the good news was that 3.0 was shipping  (I had that it had stopped) and
> that the stoppage had something to do with the license agreement that
> was now resolved.
> 
> So it is possible that:
>   the 3.0 shipping delay is old news that just reached the net and
> that it is now finally shipping.  just after I was told this, NeXT 3.0
> press releases appeared on the net.

Well,  let's get this in ascending date order.  My original post was after a  
phone call to the shipper Thursday morning, Sept 10, 1992.  It appears that
NeXT had yet to tell the shipper about such 'good' news.  At this point, I tend  
to believe the shipper more than NeXT.  


Even if it is old news, it is false advertising to claim one thing and do
another.  This is not good for NeXT, who in the past has been beaten up
on it's sales totals being unreliable.  NeXT does owe the 'waiting faithful'
an explanation why 2nd Day air shipments are taking at least 2 weeks or 
more for the majority of their customers.

I, like Art, have a small but critical project, waiting for 3.0 deployment.
I waited a week for 3.0, causing my user base a loss of a weeks productivity,  
thinking I could save me and them the pain of 'upgrade' (these users are new to
the NeXT platform).  Now I have lost that week, and I will lose another week  
installing 3.0 at our remote (like 1000's of miles away) sites, most likely  
later next month.  Mine is only a time/materials loss, but my guess is guys  
like Art and other small developers/VARs etc are really hurt by this in terms  
of money in their pocket.  For what I can tell, these are the people that  
really 'sell' NeXT to the new markets, and causing them loss will likely come  
back and cause NeXT loss.

Finally, most academic computing facilities I know try to avoid systems  
upgrades during the school year.   This may cause 3.0 to sit on the shelf
until quarter/semester break.  More bad press, in one of NeXT's strategic  
markets.

-geoff
---------------------------------------------------------------
Geoffrey Brunkhorst, RCF                    brunkhorst@Mayo.edu
Guggenheim 10                                    (507) 284-1805
Mayo Foundation, Rochester MN, 55905 USA     fax (507) 284-5231