This thread is getting rather ridiculous now and I can't believe that
Vapor have still not sorted this out. But there are such stupid things
flying around now (notably from a certain Dwight Meese) that I am going to
make my first and last post on this subject.
I am a NC3 user so the problem doesn't apply and I don't even use Microdot
anyway. I also never used NC2. Yet this is relevant to me because I have
just bought Vapor software and so I am concerned about this.
This is a stupid situation which should never have happened. Whoever are
the programmers on Microdot made a barely forgivable mistake given the
huge level of Y2K publicity over the last year or two. I still find it
amazing that it was fixed only days before the new year.
However, to fail to fix the old version of Microdot is NOT ACCEPTABLE,
definitely not morally and dubiously legally. For goodness sake, as Neil
Bothwick rightly pointed out, to fix the old version should be no more
than a fix equivalent to that done on the new version of Microdot and a
recompile. A matter of minutes.
For NC2 users who choose to pay to upgrade to NC3, then great, I am sure
they will enjoy the upgraded software that they can enjoy. However, they
SHOULD NOT be forced into this. The software they paid for should work,
no qualification. I am not even saying that they should be allowed to use
v1.4.4 or whatever the new bugfixed version is. Simply that the version
they bought should work.
As far as legal issues go, I am not a lawyer and have no specialist
knowledge. However, as I understand it in the UK under the Sale of Goods
act any item bought in the last 6 years which is not Y2K compliant can be
rejected as being unfit for the intended purpose. I do not know whether
this applies to software but if it does then anyone in the UK who bought a
copy from Active probably does have a right to threaten legal action
(against Active, not Vapor) although that's rather out of proportion.
As far as Vapor goes, well I have always had the greatest respect for
those programmers who produce such high quality software on the Amiga.
But if they fail to resolve this situation then my respect will have gone
down the drain and I'll be left wondering whether I should have spent some
of my extremely limited funds on Vapor software when the level of support
is such that a severely disabling bug will not be fixed without paying for
an upgrade.
Someone mentioned about Microdot being cracked. Normally, as a
programmer, I am very anti-piracy. But in this situation, if Vapor fail to
resolve this then I really do hope for the sake of all the NC2 users,
particularly those who only bought it recently, who have been SEVERELY let
down that someone DOES crack a new version of Microdot and distribute it
to NC2 users, because that will be *entirely* morally if not legally
justified. And if other people (not NC2 or NC3) users use the cracked
versions, then let that be a lesson to Vapor that treating people who are
after all CUSTOMERS like shit does not pay in the long term.
So: Vaporware (if anyone from Vapor can actually spare 2 minutes of their
time to read this list which is doubtful since they can't find 2 minutes
to fix it and end all this), why let a STUPID TINY little problem like
this threaten the support and goodwill of a large number of users? We are
constantly reminded of how the tiny Amiga software market needs all the
support it can get (true), but that does not mean that people PAYING for
software are not entitled to support, especially for a significant issue
like this. I can't believe that a software company who I once respected
are now acting more like the notorious purveyors of the most buggy, crap
and atrocious software ever, Microsoft.
Vapor: You can fix Microdot in 5 minutes. You can't fix the loss of
respect, business and ultimately *money* from customers that will occur if
this plainly stupid situation continues any longer.
That's all I have to say.
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