Possibilities - Letter From Phil 1/91

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LETTER FROM PHIL 1/91
---------------------

*** From January 1991 Possibilities Newsletter ***
*** Copyright 1991 by eSoft, Inc.  All Rights Reserved ***

Letter from Phil
by Phil Becker

It is a new year already and the holiday season is over.  My back is nearly 
recovered from spending hour after hour with my son recreating the Berkshire 
Valley on a 4' x 12' plywood table.  I now understand why some people spend 
years on a model railroad layout.  It is both frustrating and rewarding and 
not at all like I expected it would be.  Once again my children teach me
instead of the other way around! 

The new year is traditionally the time we look backward so we can go forward 
with a better understanding of where we are.  I look at the past year here at 
eSoft and see the best year ever.  Not only did we break all previous sales 
records, but it was a year of many important "firsts" for the TBBS product 
line. 

As you will read in this issue TBBS was used in the first USA to Moscow 
electronic conference.  1990 also marked the first year a bulletin board 
appeared in the Office of the President of the United States, and it was TBBS 
which had that honor.  I suppose this was a logical development since in 1988 
TBBS was the first BBS used in a presidential campaign -- but it still felt 
nice to see it happen. 

There were many more "firsts" for both TBBS and BBS software in general in 
1990.  It marked a turning point in the public's awareness of this technology 
and this is sure to become apparent in 1991 and beyond.  As BBS technology is 
understood and taken seriously by a larger audience, I expect to see 
applications that will be surprising.  What may be most amazing is how obvious 
they are after the fact, and why we didn't see them coming ahead of time! 

Communications technology moved forward in 1990, with low cost high speed 
modems being the most obvious example.  This development clearly sets the 
stage for significant new applications in 1991 because the availability of 
such modems makes many ideas practical that weren't before.  Look for real 
excitement here as we become used to the new power that they make available to 
us. 

TBBS will be growing a lot during 1991 as well.  1990 was occupied with TDBS 
and TIMS development.  Those products are now a reality and more people each 
day are learning how they make BBS technology an appropriate choice for many 
applications that used to require custom mainframe or minicomputer solutions.  
However, during their development TBBS received only field maintenance through 
MODS.  It is time now for it to again receive my full attention. 

Work has begun on TBBS 2.2, and early Alpha testing of some of its features is 
being conducted on the support board.  As we have promised for the past year 
TBBS 2.2 will contain the ZMODEM protocol and also the ability to be truly 
multi-lingual online.  Both of these features are currently being tested on 
the Support system.  In addition, technology has advanced enough that I will 
be able to offer a 64 line version of TBBS 2.2.  So those of you who were 
feeling a bit cramped by the 32 line limit will again be able to grow with 
TBBS. 

There will be much more in TBBS 2.2, and next issue I will discuss a few of 
the things you can look forward to seeing in it.  At this time no release date 
has been set.  I can guess that since the product has not yet entered beta 
test (I hope it will do so later this month) that it will be at least four to 
six months away.  I deduce this from the simple fact that testing a piece of 
software as complex as TBBS and being sure it is ready to market takes that 
long at a minimum.  I have a reputation for releasing no software before its 
time.  A release date will be announced when  I can predict it with any 
certainty. 

So as my holiday comes to an end, and I play railroad conductor at the 
Berkshire Valley, I can see that like my son's model railroad much has been 
accomplished yet much remains to be done.  The future for TBBS looks brighter 
than it ever has.  You can expect to see more TBBS power and capability come 
to market in 1991 than in any single year since I began TBBS in 1980.  The 
world of 1991 may look bleak to some, but for TBBS users it will be the best 
yet -- stay tuned for more, much more... 

- END -
PS0191-1
Rev. 1/91

Copyright (C) 1994 eSoft, Inc., All Rights Reserved.  Permission granted
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