NetNews Offline 2/NetNews Offline Volume 2.iso/news/comp/sys/amiga/applications/2797

Internet Message Format | 1996-08-05 | 4.2 KB

Path: suod.cs.colorado.edu!dowdy
From: [e-mail] (Stephen Dowdy)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.applications
Subject: Re: FinalWriter for Windows 95
Date: 4 Mar 1996 21:34:45 GMT
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Message-ID: <4hfnll$[e-mail]>
References: <4hbk06$[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
NNTP-Posting-Host: suod.cs.colorado.edu

In article <[e-mail]>,
Woody Williams <[e-mail]> wrote:
)In article <4hbk06$[e-mail]>, [e-mail]
)(David Jarvis) wrote:
)> previews.  There's just one catch- all of those features are on their new
)> version for Windows '95!  Oh, and the real kicker is that anyone who want
)> can get THE FULL version FOR FREE (minus the spell-checker, grammar checker,
)> and hyphenator).
)
)You complain about the small upgrade fees we have charged in the face of
)zero new Amiga sales in the USA over the last year and a half, as well as
)a complete disregard from AT to include SoftWood products in their recent
)bundles.  You complain about features lacking in our Amiga product that
)you suddenly discover have been put in a Win95 version.  Look, for your
...
)As far as SoftWood programmers working on a Windows95 version--that just
)isn't the case.  No programmer working in-house at SoftWood has worked on
)any other platform other than the Amiga.  An outside company approached me
)2 1/2 years ago about letting them port FW to run under Windows.  Back
)then it seemed like a good idea, and after reading comments like yours, it
)still does.
)
)Datatype support, RTF import/export, Tables, AutoCorrect, and a bunch of
)other enhancements will be in Final Writer 5 for the Amiga due in April.
)Since you like to bad mouth us when all we are tyring to do is stay in
)business, I am sure you would not be disturbed to not get an upgrade
)notice.
)
)The amounts we charge for each update is nothing compared to the expense I
)incur in developing the update.  My company lives from upgrade to upgrade,
)and when I read comments like yours, I wonder if it is worth the trouble.

Woody,

I understand your position.  However, your attitude is not very customer
friendly.  I, also, was rather perturbed by the Win95 info.  If you had
pre-announced what you just explained, i'm sure this wouldn't have turned
so ugly.  I can certainly appreciate the difficulty of developing for the
Amiga.  I think most of us understand the shrinking Amiga s/w market.
The best we can hope for is to have the Amiga versions remain upto date.

I have 2 SPARCstations, an A4000/040, and now (egad) a PC running Win95
and OS/2.  I have recently discovered the "Describe" WordProcessor for
OS/2.  It is largely what i have been looking for in a WP for my Amiga,
but haven't found.  WW5, after looking at it for a bit, isn't much
improved, (i was really hoping the tables would be better), and unless FW5
for the amiga is significantly better (you said i would like the table
features), i will probably end up going over to Describe under OS/2. (it
also runs under Win95 and costs just $70 for CDROM book with binaries for
OS/2, Win95, Win3)  It'll be hard for FW in its current incarnation to
compare to this, unless it becomes significantly more powerful in import/
export and things like tables and styles. (well, at least for a while,
FWWin95 will be free, though!)

Unfortunately, we're all in a sinking boat blaming each other for our
condition.  I wish it weren't so, because i really love the Amiga and
abhor all the wasted human effort developing for the horribly contorted
PC architecture. (millions of man years of work have brought it to finally
be nearly competitive)

Since you've already pre-announced some of the FW5 amiga features,
would it be possible to go ahead and announce it officially and include
upgrade pricing information?

I wish you luck, and hope FW5 amiga is as good as i need it to be.
--stephen
--
Stephen Dowdy - Systems Administrator - CS Dept - Univ of Colorado, Boulder
[e-mail] - 303-492-6196 - http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~dowdy/
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