X-To: PO%"NOTABENE@TAUNIVM"
Date:         Sat, 29 Aug 92 12:20:09 EST
From:         Clifford Flanigan <FLANIGAN@UCS.INDIANA.EDU>
Subject:      NB documentation
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.notabene

 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
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU