Re: Genera 8.0 Announcement

[ai.gooch@MCC.COM (William D. Gooch)]

    Date: Mon, 05 Mar 90 18:17:25 -0500
    From: magerman@linc.cis.upenn.edu

     Date: Mon, 5 Mar 90 00:59 CST
     From: Cohen@MCC.COM (Richard M. Cohen)

	    Date: 2 Mar 90 15:57:00 GMT
	    From: groberts@yukon.scrc.symbolics.com, jr@yukon.scrc.symbolics.com

	    Dear Symbolics Owner,

	    ...
	    Customers eligible for Genera 8.0 will receive distribution media, an
	    initial documentation set, and one extra documentation set for each
	    additional five covered systems at a site.

		....

	     Symbolics tried to pull a similar stunt back at Release 5, claiming that
	     they would only distribute one set of documentation per site.  The
	     policy was very short-lived.

	     -- Rich

	 Rich,

	 This is not a "stunt." Rather, this is a direct response to numerous
	 inputs from users that, in the past, we have distributed far more copies
	 of the manual set than were needed (or even useful)....
	 It is our policy to encourage users to duplicate documentation for their
	 own internal purposes, if they so wish.

	.... The cost of providing documentation should be built in
    to the cost of the machine.  However, you are now telling us that we
    are penalized for buying more than one machine at a time, i.e. by
    owning 5 lispm's, we get less bang/$ than someone with 1 lispm.  Would
    it help if we put ownership of our machines in 5 different names?
    Isn't this silly?  Shouldn't we get perks for owning multiple lispm's, not
    penalties?

    In summary, I find this policy *extremely* hard for Symbolics to defend
    from any direction, and I would *love* to hear from someone (other than
    stockholders who are not users) who supports and can justify this policy.

	 -- Gary

Since the first release of the document examiner, although I have kept
copies of the manuals in my office, the majority of them have remained
in their shrink wrap.  For the past year or two I haven't even been
keeping the paper around, and I don't miss it.  The document examiner 
is far better for this purpose, and you don't need a manual to learn how
to use it.

I see dozens of manuals sitting around here still in their shipping
boxes, unused.  Why should I pay for every other customer to get a paper
set per machine, especially when a superior electronic version is already
provided?  (On the other hand, release notes in particular do get copied
and widely read, especially during beta test periods.)  

Aren't you overreacting a bit?  If Symbolics needs to save money to
survive, isn't it best done at the expense of small things such as this?