Newsgroups: bit.listserv.notabene
Date:         Thu, 21 Jan 93 22:06:11 EST
From:         Dorothy Day <DAY@UCS.INDIANA.EDU>
Subject:      Re: NBI Technical Support

After a decade or more of witnessing the sordid process of corporate
buyouts and often hostile takeovers, we've earned the right to be
suspicious of a company none of us know much about that takes over
"our" shelter from the storms (or, the company we love to hate, or--
supply your own description). We don't know their motives in buying
out two small, floundering gems in a world of a few crass giants.
After all, if the originators and developers of these wonderful
products couldn't make a go of it, what makes them look like such a
great investment?

Well, it's not the first time great software remained too long in the
hands of people who couldn't negotiate the business jungle well enough
to survive. Design vision and marketing skill don't necessarily come
together in the same people. How many of us are good at marketing our
own outstanding skills?

The Technology Group seems to think that by providing sufficient
capital infusion they can keep the two products alive, allow the
developers to improve them, and find further winning combinations of
the existing code with other products. For that we can be grateful for
a time, at least. If down the road they let either product die off,
they've at least bought us some time with the existing products and
ensured that the necessary fixes for the new versions get completed.

(And by the way, it would be more logical to acquire XyQuest for the
underlying code of NB than to acquire NBI for the refinements to XYW
code. I don't really know the order in which the two companies were
purchased, but I believe it was a package agreement.)

To cry betrayal by people who have worn themselves nearly to death
keeping the faith with us seems the height of selfrighteousness.
Yes, it's true that they are guilty of faulty judgment about how many
more features could be crammed into each product and still make it out
the door "on time." This is a pattern we have seen with each new
version. And yes, that very pattern finally bankrupted the companies.
Polyannaism, yes. But betrayal? Hardly.

We take ourselves so seriously. We don't yell at a publisher for not
getting out a new edition of a reference book we depend on, and which
badly needs updating. Book publishers generally don't advertise far
ahead of publication. But any librarians on this list know that
publishers DO take in subscriptions, offer pre-publication discounts for
pre-payment, in the case of massive reference sets. The money is used
to underwrite the actual costs of getting it out the door. And delays
routinely occur in these large projects too. But individual purchasers
rarely see this side of publishing. With software we see it, and feel
"betrayed." We have a Right to get it--On Time! Delay means disaster.

Well, we are advised by the experts never to depend on a product not
already available. Yes, we needed those promised features. But to
design that research project that will get us tenure so as to depend
on a "promised" software package shows faulty judgment on OUR part.
Let him who has faultless judgment cast the first stone...

Dorothy Day, Indiana University
Bitnet: DAY@IUBACS
Internet: day@ucs.indiana.edu
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU