This is a message I just posted in comp.os.geos in response to one
from GWREP Steve Main to Helmar Rudolph (the redistributor in South
Africa) whom those of you who are over there know has been very
viciously attacking Geoworks and its corporate management for many
months as well as the former republisher, DPI, for not supporting
him the way he thinks he should be supported as a marketer of Ensemble.
I'm sharing it with you because I want you to know how I feel about
*this* Fido echo.
Quoting Steve Main (gwsteve@aol.com) to Helmar Rudolph
On the subject History lesson and Confidence
GS>>Look, you've consistently badmouthed Gordon and Geoworks
GS>>in this and other forums, and your remarks have recently grown
GS>>more rude and vicious than ever.
I agree 100% with this statement.  FWIW, Steve, I've now lurked and
then dropped this newsgroup half a dozen times since I stopped posting
to it over a year ago, and each time I've left it's been because I
was sick of reading the crap spewing out of South Africa about what
hasn't been done by Geoworks itself or the companies with whom it has
contracted the republisher rights to support and develop the desktop.
I've stayed active in Fidonet's Geoworks Echo which is a much friendlier
place and where most of the messaging is about the practical use of
what we have and all of the posts about the future of the desktop
are even-handed, open-minded discussions.  The people over there are
eagerly anticipating the advent of New Deal, and it is obvious to me
that they intend to give this republisher a fair chance to prove itself
before they start to criticize.
My reason for being here has always been to learn from others and share
the tips I have on how to use most efficiently what we have in this
excellent suite of applications, and I must say that my reason for
leaving each time has been because very few of the discussion threads
have to do with the practical use of GEOS Ensemble 2.0 as it is (or the
patch version which I have never applied as my Ensemble is very stable
and none of the bug fixes were applicable to work I do with my copy).
I don't know and don't care about what DPI or anyone else, including
Geoworks, did or didn't do.  That horse was beaten to death here long
ago. The question now is what New Deal plans to do or will do as
republisher, and I say all we can do is wait and see what happens when
as it gets underway with its program.
As far as Geoworks itself is concerned, it was clear to me as a novice
participant from the posts you and other GWREPS made three years ago
when I first joined this newsgroup that the company was moving into
directions that did not include the desktop, and that did not change
my mind one bit about continuing to use what I had bought as my DTP
program of first choice.
From my standpoint as an end user, I am happy with what I have, and
I can live without the features I would like to have (enhancement of
GeoWrite with uppercase/lowercase conversion, macros, automatic TOC
and footnoting, etc. as I have with WordPerfect on my various legal
secretarial part-time jobs or a relational database for my canine
newspaper subscriber list, faxes in and out of the desktop, Internet
from the desktop, etc.) because I am so pleased with the ease of use
of Ensemble and its stability when I am working with pages full of
grouped graphics in multiple ad layouts.
When I first came into this newsgroup, I enjoyed corresponding with
Shag Birchall, Philip Hurley, Ron Frye, you and others about the
learning curve I was experiencing with Ensemble and got a lot of
help from all of you. Yes, there were posts about the directions
into which Geoworks was moving and the fact that it did not appear
there would be improvements to the desktop or a myriad of third
party apps forthcoming from developers because of Geoworks' corporate
decisions to move into other markets. But those discussions of what
was happening and how to encourage independent development of third
party apps were *rational* ones and without flaming of the company.
Then the mood and the tone of the messages changed, and I attribute
it more to the venom of Helmar than anything else, and eventually I
got tired of this increasingly unfriendly place where people seemed to
be spending most of their time flaming the company and each other for
offering differing opinions on topics concerning the desktop.  So
I left.  But I came back quietly as a lurker a few weeks later.  Then
I left again. That has now happened more times than I want to count.
And so I am here again and have been for about two weeks, and I am
appalled by the fact that nothing has changed for the better since I
was last here in June or July.
GS>>My point is that you've received exactly everything that Geoworks
GS>>ever promised you -- i.e. nothing -- since you had and have no
GS>>agreement of any kind with Geoworks.
Telling it like it is as usual.  Good for you, Steve.
GS>>Geoworks has made no promise of internet connectivity for Ensemble,
GS>>nor of any major upgrade to Ensemble.
But it did make some promises, and it is keeping them. It could have
washed its corporate hands of the desktop altogether when DPI failed
to perform, and it didn't.  We need to give the company credit for
pursuing the commitment it made to us users that it would get a
republisher for the desktop who would hopefully do the things we want
to see done.
GS>>And now, here we are on the eve of announcing New Deal as a
GS>>new company whose mission is to republish and evolve the desktop
GS>>Geos software, and who is about to start making some of those
GS>>promises we've all been waiting for...
We should be wishing New Deal good luck and assuring its officers
and directors that we can be patient a while longer and give them a
fair chance to turn the promises into reality instead of complaining
about what hasn't been done in the past.
GS>>Well, Helmar... I, for one, find myself wishing you'd just go away.
You're not alone.  I've felt that way for a very long time, and I
imagine there are many posters and lurkers here who would be delighted
to get mail packets without treatises by Helmar in them.
                                                Anne Page
 * SLMR 2.1a * I'm a Proud User of GeoWorks Ensemble 2.0!
 * SLMR 2.1a * You never get a second chance to make a first impression!
--- QScan/PCB v1.16b / 01-0075
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