FAXination -- an update
By Kevin Noonan
Copyright (c) 1995 Apple Users' Group, Sydney
Republished from Applecations, a publication of the Apple Users' Group, Sydney, Australia.
knoonan@cleese.apana.org.au
I have written before about FAXination [Applecations April 1995], the Apple IIgs facsimile software available from Vitesse. There have been six updates to FAXination released up to the time of writing this article. Why? Simply because as I have also noted before, the program simply did not work with most modems at first! It does work now but I feel an update on the present situation is in order.
It is my understanding that Vitesse chose not to sell FAXination to some customers. I know of at least three Australians who ordered FAXination but did not receive their copies until three or four updates had been released. I can only guess their reasons -- the customer reaction had been so poor from the first version that to supply a non-functioning product would have been even worse for public relations.
For whatever reasons I received version 1.0 from Vitesse and am currently in possession of a version called 016. Yes 016, not 1.06. I suspect that there is a deal of accidental honesty in the numbering. Numbers starting with 0 are, by tradition in the computing world, reserved for what are called beta releases, that is versions that are not ready for release and are still in need of much more testing.
What I am suggesting is that Vitesse has chosen to sell (as I did state in my last article) a product that simply was not ready for release. I have seen others suggest that the imperative of getting a product out of the door was more important than getting a program that worked. I object strongly to being used for beta testing a product and having to pay for the privilege. I understand beta testing and have been lucky enough to be involved in beta testing many Apple II software products and I do not object provided I am able to make the choice and I am not being charged for helping a company finish a product.
You may note a hint of concern in my writing. I have installed each version as I have got them and I cannot see that the so-called updates are doing anything more than what should have been provided as part of the original package. I am of the opinion that updates should be providing an increase in the basic ability of the program, not parts of that basic ability!
Certainly version 016 seems to be less functional than 015. I am not sure that the updates being supplied with no information about what the update actually does is a sensible way of selling a product.
In retrospect I feel I have wasted my money and in all honesty would only recommend this product to those who are in desperate need for faxing from their Apple IIgs. I must admit I have gone back to using the very much more friendly and powerful fax software available for my Macintosh, which has the extra advantage of being public domain and by extension considerably cheaper.
I strongly recommend that Apple IIgs users who have that desperate need wait another few weeks for another fax program tentatively called PMPFax which is due to be released shortly. This one promises to be a complete product, but then... we have heard that before.

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