The OS/2 hoopla.

[Steve Lamb]

Tuesday, October 19, 1999, 1:26:08 PM, Ralph wrote:
> I think it is quite understandable that this point was "missed" by many
> PMMail/2 users on this list.  Many of us had communications with
> Southsoft over the past year which led us to believe that this update,

    I understand where you're coming from but this is exactly what I am
talking about.

    As of October 15th, 1999, PMMail no longer is the property of Southsoft.
*ALL* promises made by Southsoft, all allusions to future features, bug fixes,
ports, back-room deals, private emails and so on are completely, utterly and
irrevocably null and void.

    What BSW, *NOT SOUTHSOFT*, has done from my understanding of the public
information, is released what they got to get the product out there, get the
bug fixes that were in there out there and then settle in for development.
They could have sat on it and held the update up for many more months.

    I do not think it is fair, understandable or not, for people to blast a
new company that has just gotten the product and is doing what they can to get
the ball rolling.  I do not think it is fair to hold BSW to *ANY* promise or
timetable that Southsoft publicly or privately exrepssed.  BSW is not
Southsoft and the satisfaction and dissatisfaction with Southsoft should not
automatically translate on to BSW.

> I really haven't seen much in the way of flamethrowing here, just a lot
> of justifiable statements of disappointment.

    The problem is those statements of disappointments are based on statements
made by a company which no longer controls the product.  It is not fair to the
new company at all.

> Therefore, it is unfortunate that a simple statement wasn't made prior to or
> concurrently with the PMMail/2 2.10 release acknowledging the extremely
> limited number of changes it contained and promising more significant
> changes in the future.

    I consider that simply frivolous.  Their actions will make their
statements IMHO.  Until then any statement is worth the bits that were made to
make it.  Nothing.

> I think that such an acknowledgement could have eliminated a lot of the
> expressions of disappointment appearing on this list. For those of us who
> downloaded PMMail/2 2.10 and fired it up with great expectations - without
> the benefit of such a statement from BSW or even a list of changes since 2.0
> - our expressions of disappointment are quite understandable.

    BSW did nothing to build up those expectations.  What you're saying is
that when you talk to someone and *you* build up expectations it is their
fault that when you finally meet them in person that they fail to meet them?
No, wrong.  That is doubly applicable when, say, you're talking with someone
about someone else and the 2nd person doesn't live up to the expectations the
1st person and you built up.  It is not their fault and to make demands on
that and blame them is simply wrong.

-- 
         Steve C. Lamb         | I'm your priest, I'm your shrink, I'm your
         ICQ: 5107343          | main connection to the switchboard of souls.
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