Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!ucsd!ucsdhub!hp-sdd!hp-pcd!hpfcso!hpfcdq!kaf
From: kaf@hpfcdq.HP.COM (Keith Fish)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp
Subject: Re: Sales reps know about Usenet? (was: Re: HP 3rd Party Software attitude)
Message-ID: <350024@hpfcdq.HP.COM>
Date: 16 Jan 90 16:58:43 GMT
References: <642@mmlai.UUCP>
Organization: Hewlett-Packard - Fort Collins, CO
Lines: 48

>In article <225@cmic.UUCP>, garvey@cmic.UUCP (Joe Garvey) writes:
>> Sun will loan you a development
>> system... HP (usually, in my experience) seems to want the 3rd party vendors
>> to by (at retail) a development system. So Sun generates a larger volume
>> (and more sales $$) while customers suffer with limited choices of software.

> This seems to be a common thread when 3rd party software support for HP is
> not up to snuff.  Before you purchase softare for HP (or any other vendor)
> you should first ask if they have your machine on site.  If they do not, you 
> probably should go with another vendor, since any port will have lots of
> bugs and you won't get good customer help on these problems.  Another
> problem is when vendors support multiple platforms.  If your platform is
> near last in line for new version ports, you should begin to wonder.

I know this is going to sound biased but it's not intended to be ...

What I had always heard/understood was that Sun always LET their 3rd party
vendors buy/lease Sun systems since the 3rd party vendor had no choice --
Sun was viewed as the leading unix-like workstation seller in the market so
Sun had no reason to loan anybody anything and the 3rd party vendors knew
that, too.  HP, on the other hand, was not perceived as the "leader" so they
always had to work their butts off to show that their systems were good and
usually (depending on the 3rd party) had to give out loaner systems.

Now that HP has been getting some acknowledgement that they are really a
unix-like workstation vendor, Sun may be doing more in the way of loaning
equipment for competitive reasons.

If both Sun and HP loaned out all their equipment to every 3rd party in the
world AND supported those 3rd parties doing porting/development, they wouldn't
have many resources left to generate new/better products for paying customers
(==> bankrupt).  It's hard to correctly prioritize what can be done, and it's
even harder to make changes to these changing priorities happen instanenously.

> Vendors listed in the HP 3rd party software catalog should be checked to be
> sure they have a machine on site...
Do you also recommend that a 3rd party have all configurations of all
workstations (not just HP) that the 3rd party offers it's software on, or
are you singling HP out ?

> *********************************************************************
> Tony Burzio               * To survive is not enough.
> Martin Marietta Labs      *
> mmlai!burzio@uunet.uu.net *
> *********************************************************************

... strictly my understanding and not that of the company I work for.
Keith Fish