From: Harold Climer <HCLIMER%UTCVM.bitnet@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Subject: Re: AOL for help (was Re: GEOS and PostScript)
Reply-To: <pcgeos-list@pandora.sf.ca.us>
Organization: Pandora Systems	
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 03:46:46 GMT
Originator: pcgeos-list@pandora.sf.ca.us

On  1/05/93 Michael Hirsch said:
>>>>>> On Tue, 5 Jan 1993 12:02:17 GMT, johnm@cory.Berkeley.EDU (John D.
> Mitchell) said:
>
>John> In article <Jan.5.05.04.27.1993.5618@pilot.njin.net>
>John> birchall@pilot.njin.net (Shag) writes:
>	[snip]
>>I would be very interested in learning
>>
>>a) the AOL addresses of the Georeps (since I _can_ e-mail them through the
>>   AOL <-> Internet e-mail gateway, without spending money that I don't have
>>   to begin with).
>
>John> As I tried to say a long while back when this was brought up...
>John> Please remember that the GeoReps are strictly *volunteers*.
>John> They ride herd over the various GeoWorks areas on AOL.  They
>John> aren't the answer people (though they end up doing an awful lot
>John> of that because they do know so much).
>	[snip]
>>c) whether GeoWorks has given any thought to providing some other sort of
>>   support (even just a UUCP e-mail drop would be better, for folks like me.
>
>John> At the current time, AOL is (still) the official online GeoWorks
>John> support forum.
>
>I don't get it.  First you say that GeoWorks does not supply any
>official suppoort on AOL, but rather the people there are volunteers
>working (presumably) on their own time.  Then you say that AOL is the
>official online support forum.
>
>Well, which is it?  From your second description I would say that Shag
>is right to be a tad miffed that the only online support costs $$.
>But if the first description is true then his the objections are that
>1) There is no official online support forum, and
>2) The voluteers (with the notable exception of John) choose to spend
>all there time on AOL.
>
>My impression is that the AOL forum is more than just a bunch of
>employees all of whom happen to spend time (and $) on AOL.  It seems
>pretty clear to me that they are encouraged to do so by GeoWorks (I'm
>willing to be corrected, though).  Until I find out otherwise, I will
>be annoyed along with Shag that GeoWorks isn't spending any time
>putting information out where I can read it.
>
>After all, when I got DRDOS, I got drdostip.zip off of Simtel.  When I
>helped my father buy an SVGA board that came without Windows 3.1
>drivers we found the companies official driver on Simtel.  When I
>realized that DRDOS had a new upgrade I found it on Simtel.  I have
>found patches for Turbo C on Simtel.  Since that pretty much takes
>care of all the commercial applications I own, I would say that every
>other company I deal with puts information out where people can find it
>without shelling out $$.
>
>Surely GeoWorks has some bug fixes it could release.  Surely it has
>some frequently asked questions to which it knows the answers that it
>could publish electronically (that's what drdostip.zip was).  You told
>me once that there was a Dvorak keyboard driver on AOL but it has
>never migrated to internet (that I know of).  Remember all the hassles
>Rudy had trying to get us a copy of launchmaker and iconeditor?  If I
>were GeoWorks I would try to get them the widest distribution possible
>instead of rely on the trickle down effect.
>
>Boy, that's long.  My point is that GeoWorks could do a lot more to
>get the information out to the public.  I don't mean to criticize
>John, I think he is doing a fine job here, I only mean to  criticize
>(constuctively, I hope) his employer.
>--
>
>
>Michael D. Hirsch		mhirsch@cs.princeton.edu
>Computer Science Department	Voice: (609) 258-1751
>Princeton NJ, 08544		FAX:   (609) 258-1771
>
             Berkley AKA Geoworks has always been this way.Since they brought
    out version 1.0 of GEOS for the Commodore 64, a person has had two
    choices.Call a non-toll  free number in California ( Which was always
    busy and during the day too. ) or join Quantum Link and use their
    "Great" Plus Service  at 8 cents a minute and 1200 bps to download
    usually good programs by third party developers or join GEOS conference.
             Customer Service has not changed except for the platform.
             They have a good product and potentially a great one if
    they don't blow it. I got Geoworks Pro when I finally got a MS-DOS
    machine because of my experience using GEOS 128 on my Commodore 128.
             I hope they will change  their ways out there in Berkley.
             If not they will be like the Terrible Lizards of 165 million
    years ago; extinct.
                                                Harold Climer
                                                Physics Dept.
                                                U. Tennessee at Chattanooga
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.pcgeos