Date: Fri, 18 Apr 1997 17:33:59 -0400 From: dennis <dennis@etinc.com> To: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@time.cdrom.com>, Narvi <narvi@haldjas.folklore.ee> Cc: Nate Williams <nate@mt.sri.com>, freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Price of FreeBSD (was On Holy Wars...) Message-ID: <3.0.32.19970418173355.00a219a4@etinc.com>
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At 01:35 PM 4/18/97 -0700, you wrote: >> Just speculating: if some company (be it BSDI, Digital, the >> little green aliens from the Mars or somebody wholly different) wants to >> contribute something to FreeBSD, yet have it not be known to the larger >> publicity (to avoid rumors, out of time queries, etc.) before it is ready >> they certainly should have the right. > >Thank you. That's precisely the situation here (and the Martians say >hello, BTW, and simply wish it to be known that the whole "Mars >Attacks" thing has got them pretty sensitive about adverse publicity). > >I'm sure that if Dennis were also to design a new card that gave you >T1/E1 Frame Relay connectivity for the price of a standard serial port >and he had some of us BETA testing it under conditions of "please >please don't talk about the details of this until it's ready" (not >that Dennis would ever consider working that closely with us - it >would rob him of the ability to fire flaming arrows at us from a safe >distance, for one thing), he probably would not welcome disclosure in >-hackers on the full details of his product and planned business >model. It is, of course, the usual Dennis hypocracy that he would >demand this of anyone else's commercial arrangement, however. If it were secret you wouldnt be beta testing it for me. > >It is this and other aspects of his behavior that have caused me to >discount Dennis as a serious player in this business. He may have a >technically sound product (possibly even the best currently >available), but the "human factors" side of dealing with Emerging >Technologies has caused me to recommend against using anything they >make - my clients would *never* forgive me for inflicting Dennis on >them, no matter how well the product worked, and I can only hope that >SDL Communications can get their Frame Relay act together soon since I >can at least say that they're seasoned professionals who don't appear >to make a sport of biting their own customer's heads off at the >slightest provocation*. If you judge customer support by knowing the answers to customers questions right away and helping them get the product installed our support is superior. If you expect us to configure your router for you, debug problems with bad telco lines and teach you how to find conflicts in your PC, and educate you on the fundamentals of telecommuncations then our support stinks. SDL has been working on frame relay for 2 1/2 years now.....you really want to use the result? > > Jordan > >* This is based on *multiple* personal emails I've received from > actual customers of ETINC who wished to cry on my shoulder for > awhile after making this very mistake. I have no personal opinion > of their products, given that I've never used them, and Dennis's > "customer support" was also the topic of a small gathering at USENIX, > mine being, if anything, one of the more mild opinions expressed. > Dennis has made his own bed and now he's simply going to have to lie > in it. > My opinion of you is similar...but you already knew that. :-) anyone who goes crying to you is far beyond help. And BTW, my bed is quite fluffy thank you. Dennis
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