uport Support

[Vernon Schryver]

Are Microport 'Hotline Support' or 'Upgrade service' worth it?

I recently purchased for my private, evening use, a "limited" 386-system
with DOS-merge.  (After a bunch of bumbling trying to make tapes work,
they tell me that $1300 is not enough.  Their recommended backup medium,
Everex tape, requires an optional, $100 driver.  The alternative is
diskettes.  Is this real unix, without any removable mass storage?  One
has expects a certain minimum, even from System V.)

If I send a bunch of bug reports to Microport, what good will it do
me?  Will I get fixes or patches?  Are updates frequent, with lots of
fixes?  Fully characterizing a bug so that someone can reproduce and fix
it is real work.  Writing a coherent report is worse.  I don't need to
pay money for the opportunity.

I ask because, during these first 7 days of my free (sic) 30 days of
support (free=~$700, the $ difference between BTI & Microport), I've had
mixed experiences.  One person knew things, and was anxious and able to
help.  Two seemed less knowedgable, or were tired, or forced at gun-point
to answer the phone.  A fourth person was a zilch.

Perhaps last week was bad for them.  It did take forever to get thru--they
were very busy.

I can probably come up with work-arounds myself, when it is possible.  I
could certainly consult the SVR3.x source the next day.  However, I don't
intend to steal source, the bug fixes, or even the raw time for which SGI,
my employer, pays.

So, should I spend the couple of hours to document and submit the bugs
I've found so far?  Should I send them another $350 for support & upgrades?
What have long-time Microport customers found?

(Given that I've already spent $700 more than BTI's price, you can probably
guess the answer I'm hoping for.)


Vernon Schryver
vjs at sgi.com