Fw: They're kidding, right?

["Thomas Michanek" <thomas.michanek@xxxxxx>]

I simply have to forward this message from comp.text.frame
It would be interesting to see a comment from someone at Adobe.

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Thomas Michanek, Technical Writer
IAR Systems AB, Sweden: http://www.iar.com
mailto:Thomas.Michanek@iar.se
Tel: +46 18 167800, Fax: +46 18 167838
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"Abby Franquemont" <abby@eniac.stanford.edu> wrote:
> In article <3AD6F703.6920E593@Square1.nl>,
> Jeroen Dekker  <Jeroen@Square1.nl> wrote:
> >Could it be that there's another urban legend in the making here? I
> >mean, who did Abby talk to at Adobe?
> 
> Here's how it went down. I said to myself, "Hey, look, we've got
> Distiller Server 3.x on our Solaris systems. There's a 4.x out, I
> want to get it." So I started looking around on their web site for
> a way to get it. After about 2 hours I couldn't find any way to
> order anything from them that wasn't for Windows or Mac. So I got
> to looking for phone numbers to call, figuring, somewhere there's
> gotta be someone who can tell me what I've gotta do to upgrade my
> old software to the newer one.
> 
> Finally, I find a list of contact numbers. Only one number says
> anything at all about customer service for UNIX. That number is:
> 800-272-3623. I found the number at the URL:
> http://www.adobe.com/support/phonenumbers/main.html
> and it appears to be pretty much their main customer service 
> number. There's 900 line tech support, or flat fee tech support,
> also listed -- but I didn't want tech support, I wanted to find 
> out about upgrading software we already had to a newer version,
> what it would cost, and how long it would take to get the goods,
> plus ask a couple of questions about some other products I'd heard 
> a little about.
> 
> After something like 20-30 minutes holding, I got through to a
> woman (whose name I didn't get) and started asking my questions. 
> "We no longer have any UNIX products," she said. I said that I knew
> they weren't releasing, say, Acrobat 5 for UNIX, but what about
> Distiller Server 4.x, which was listed in various places on their 
> web site? 
> 
> "We no longer have any UNIX products." I explicitly asked, no products
> are available to be purchased or upgraded to, at any price, under
> any circumstances? She continued to state that was the case. She said
> that they would provide service and support for any products people
> had already been using, but wouldn't sell anything else. She said the
> thing about "We no longer have any UNIX products" about a dozen times.
> When I asked again, "So I can't upgrade my 3.x version of distiller 
> server to the 4.x version no matter what I do?" she said, "You can
> upgrade to Windows or Mac." When I said "What if I want the Solaris
> version that's listed on your web site in several places?" she said,
> "You're stuck with what you have now. But I can answer questions about
> it for you."
> 
> I was, truly, stunned. Thus the subject line ("They're kidding, right?")
> and me coming to a newsgroup where I know there's folks making heavy
> use of an Adobe product for UNIX platforms.
> 
> [snip]
> 
> >With so many graphics being created on UNIX workstations, we'd be
> >very surprised
> >if they were dropping UNIX. Just think of all the engineering and 
> >scientific
> >industries using highly specialized UNIX applications to produce 
> >designs and
> >plots. These graphics need to be documented, published etc. (which is
> >where we
> >come in by the way). 
> 
> Likewise, my organization works with scientific, technical and medical
> publishing.  I find the whole thing completely unbelievable.
> 
> >Why would Adobe turn its back on such a huge established
> >market? Think also of web applications using UNIX servers to 
> >publish database
> >content online...
> 
> It's completely failing to make sense to me, but then, I can remember
> it not making much sense to me some years back when I spent 2 weeks
> trying to get ahold of anyone at Adobe and could only get a voice
> mail message informing me the whole company was on a retreat for a
> few weeks. Point being, I don't know if I'd stake much on Adobe only
> doing stuff that makes sense to me.
> 
> >It's probably worth somebody (abby?) contacting someone in product
> >management or
> >product marketing at Adobe to get a clear directional statement.
> 
> I'd be more than happy to do so if I had any clue who to get ahold
> of over there, and how. I'd be thrilled to find out the person I 
> talked to was wrong. 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Abby Franquemont                             Systems Software Developer
> abby@highwire.stanford.edu          HighWire Press, Stanford University

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