From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,93a8020cc980d113 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: What is wrong with Ada? References: <1176150704.130880.248080@l77g2000hsb.googlegroups.com> <1177160171.286985.167860@y80g2000hsf.googlegroups.com> <1177163425.459427.175280@b58g2000hsg.googlegroups.com> <1177460444.575339.317730@c18g2000prb.googlegroups.com> From: Markus E Leypold Organization: N/A Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2007 11:57:35 +0200 Message-ID: User-Agent: Some cool user agent (SCUG) Cancel-Lock: sha1:ecrkdRI8u5rkpdEBorN+Ir3orok= MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii NNTP-Posting-Host: 88.72.230.139 X-Trace: news.arcor-ip.de 1177494577 88.72.230.139 (25 Apr 2007 11:49:37 +0200) X-Complaints-To: abuse@arcor-ip.de Path: g2news1.google.com!news4.google.com!news.germany.com!news.unit0.net!newsfeed.arcor-ip.de!news.arcor-ip.de!not-for-mail Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:15278 Date: 2007-04-25T11:57:35+02:00 List-Id: "Chad R. Meiners" writes: > On Apr 21, 9:50 am, "jimmaureenrog...@worldnet.att.net" > wrote: > >> Can you obtain trial versions of any Microsoft product at all? > > Actually most computer science students can obtain free and complete > versions of most Microsoft products. I hate to make advertisement for them, but even a non-student you can get trial versions of a lot (most?) of things, e.g. Exchange (brr -- who'd want that?), most of the operating systems (perhaps only at certain times?). They are mostly restricted to 120 days of use. Since we have been talking about Ada vendors: MS understands marketing very well, something the Ada vendors never groked. E.g. You always get an answer to requests. it might be wrong, but it's always friendly and the stay composed, even if you refuse their offer of X by pointing to some free (as in freedom) product and tell them that you and/or your customers prefer the free solution. On the other side, if I compare that to (big) Ada vendors (Randy excepted!): On two requests for a price list only one vendor bothered to answer and he didn't send a list but wanted to know more about me/us (obviously they don't have a standard package, but take what you can afford, a particularly unsympathetic approach). And about surreal answers on requests about licensing state and history from the "acting director, Europe" of a certain vendor, I've already written enough in the past. There is one similarity, though: Libre (well, that's only one Ada vendor) and download.microsoft.com share a similar degree of amnesia as far as the past state of things are concerned. Regards -- Markus