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- X-To: PO%"NOTABENE@TAUNIVM"
- Message-ID: <NOTABENE%92082921441489@TAUNIVM>
- Date: Sat, 29 Aug 92 12:20:09 EST
- Sender: Nota Bene List <NOTABENE@TAUNIVM>
- From: Clifford Flanigan <FLANIGAN@UCS.INDIANA.EDU>
- Subject: NB documentation
- Newsgroups: bit.listserv.notabene
- Lines: 109
-
- Allen (itf@psuvm.psu.ed) asks if anyone on this list has ever received
- commericial software without documentation. Maybe somebody has, but this
- is a highly irregular practice. But why should we be surprised about this?
- NBI has engaged in truly almost unprecedented practices all along. How many
- other software companies have taken peoples' money two years or more in
- advance of deliverying the software? And how many companies have so
- patholgically lied to their faithful customers, week after week, and month
- after month? What NBI has done may be narrowly within the boundary of the
- law, but it violates everything that any consumer organization says
- represents good business practices. Now those who have paid for the
- documentation will have to wait "a few months"--and God knows what that
- means in NBI's peculair way of reckoning time--before they receive what
- they paid for, in some case more than years ago.
-
- The devotees on this list will, in response to this "flame," remind us that
- other big software companies have also been late with their products. No
- major software company of which I am aware--and I do know a good deal about
- the mircocomputer industry--has ever done what NBI has done and survived.
- If it were a company anybody really cared about, it would have been hounded
- to death in the trade papers by what it has done.
-
- It is my firm belief that what has happened is this--NBI has used the money
- it collected in the past two years to fund the development of NB4. This
- practice was frequently encountered in the early days of mircocomputing,
- but it is strongly frowned upon by the industry. Now, NBI is going to take
- the money it gets from actually delivering the product--if that really
- ever happens--and pay for the production of the documentation. Let's face
- it folks, in a time when big software firms are going under, it is not
- possible that NBI has a cash reserve, unless it has a big daddy patron. I
- am certain that many of the delays in the production of NB4 have been due to
- major financial problems at NBI. Nothing else could account for the
- events of the past several years. The only alternative, which I do suspect
- was a factor, is technical incompetence--and the inability to pay a regular
- staff of programers working full time.
-
- By the way, if you were a banker, how much of a line of credit would extend
- to NBI, once you took its past business practicies into account?
-
- The irony of the situation is that many of its fanatically faithful users
- might have beet tolerated this situation had NBI been honest. But claims
- to the contrary made here from time to time, NBI is relentlessly following
- its own vision without regard to its users, whom it claims it does not have
- time to talk to. Instead of open communication, NBI has chosen to lie,
- lie, lie. And yes I do mean lie, not miscalculate. The recent diversity
- of stories in the past few weeks, with the contradictory excuses offered
- for why the product was or was not shipping are not miscalculations. They
- cannot all possibly be true. They are nothing but lies offered as excuses.
-
- So the upshot of all of this is, don't expect to see the documentation
- any time soon. And would anyone believe NBI if they said otherwise?
-
- Please, fanantical and irrational devotees of NBI, do not respond by telling
- me how wonderful the people are at NBI, how they have had "tragic" events
- in their lives, and other such claims that have been made repeatedly. All
- that may be true. But it seems to me that as a business, NBI is utterly
- unreliable. There is no reason why anyone should believe anything they
- claim. This belongs to the record, and no user or potental user of the product
- should be unaware of this fact. When people ponder why this truly
- excellent product is used by so few, they must recongize that NBI's manner
- of doing business is a major factor. Nothing justifies the way that NBI has
- treated its customers, who are probably the most faithful installed
- based in the microcomputer world. They deserve to be told the truth, but
- the truth is what they have never been told. Even the last newsletter,
- which promised a June delivery of the product, contained only a single line of
- apology for delays of over two years, no explanation. Everything else was
- self-celebration, aimed at the most naive of users. Yet this list has seen
- many reports of scholarly work delayed, often with serious consequences, by
- faithful users who were foolish enough to believe NBI's claims.
-
- When people ask me if they should use NB, I tell them the whole story--that
- it is the best DOS word processor around, but that it is produced by a
- company that practices very questionable business practices, that lies to
- its customers constantly, and that refuses any direct communication except
- for its mostly good technical support. I also tell them that I strongly
- suspect, but do not know for a fact, that NBI has serious financial
- problems, since nothing else could account for such strange behavior. I
- think to tell anyone any thing less would be to deceive. Under these
- circumstances, how many people do you think are going to switch to NB? And
- any consultant would be crazy to put his reputation on the line by
- recommending NB. This is not to deny the potential excellence of the
- program. But buying software of such complexity is also buying a
- relationship to its manufacturers and supporters. And I see no way
- whatsoever that NBI can be termed trustworthy as a business organization,
- whatever the intergrity of its individual owners might be. Furthermore, if
- you want to do many of the wonderful things that NB can do, you better be
- on this list, because you will never get the support from NBI, no matter
- what their claims. I suspect that they would like to give such support,
- but they cannot afford to do so. Their conduct has probably put them in a
- vicious circle from which they cannot escape. But as far as I can see,
- theyt have no one else but themselves to blame. Please spare me all the
- stuff about Xywrite (which, though on the verge of bankruptcy, has put out
- its product and claims to be near introducing a Windows version of it) and
- IBM. It's true, but a pretty stale excuse two years after it all happened.
- And by the way, NBI has never said a word about all these "troubles" to
- its faithful users. According to the official version offered in its
- newsletters, these incredible delays have been due to the fact that NBI's
- programmers (does anybody believe that NBI employs a full-time staff of
- programmers?) are working day and night, sacrificing themselves
- relentlessly to add new features to the world's greatest word processing
- program.
-
- Is there any user on this list who seriously and honestly believes that by
- January 1 he or she will have in his possession a completely debugged copy
- of NB 4 and Lingua and a completely debugged version of Orbis, along with
- the full documentation for these programs? If so, I'd like to talk to him
- or her about some nice real estate, including a bridge.
-
- Cliff Flanigan
- Indiana University
-