Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mmlai!burzio
From: burzio@mmlai.UUCP (Tony Burzio)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp
Subject: VUE and OpenLook Apps
Keywords: Mac attack
Message-ID: <38@gauss.mmlai.UUCP>
Date: 20 Oct 90 12:56:38 GMT
Organization: Martin Marietta Labs, Baltimore
Lines: 38

Some people have written to me suggesting that we get HPs
new VUE window manager to get all the nifty OpenLook-like
programs.  I have several objections to the way HP is
handling this product.  First, I am concerned about reliability
of the software (never thought I would say that :-).  We
have one HP that has the pre-loaded HP-UX with a few X
programs included.  Normally, the HP-UX you get on tape is
the most stable UNIX I have used.  The pre-loaded variety,
however, is the most unstable crash-prone fill-up-your-disk
system I have seen.  During our sea trials, the system had
to be rebooted several times a day to cure serious problems.
What a terrible thing to do to the novice user, the intended
audience for pre-loaded HP-UX.  The defaults configuration
of X is also very hard, since everything is different from 
normal X.  Would Vue be as buggy?  The demo I saw indicates
it may well be...

Second, the user interface IS the machine, not a tack on.
One would have thought that Apple would be a good example to
emulate.  They provide (note to HP management types: with a
higher price) a user included interface that is fool-proof.
Last I saw Apple was doing pretty well.  Remember, for new
customers adding VUE is easier, since you can slip it in to
the capital equipment price.  Try explaining to your boss
that you need a couple of more grand here, a couple of more
grand there for a user interface, when the Sun guy down the
hall got his user interface for free!

Oh well, off to twist my boss's arm to scrape up the $5000 for
UIMX, plus maybe VUE and Softbench and...  I can hear him now,
"Why not just get a Sun and get a user interface for free, plus
loads of free software?"  I don't have a good answer for that.

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Tony Burzio               * B-d-b-d-b-d-b- that's all folks!
Martin Marietta Labs      * 
mmlab!burzio@uunet.uu.net *
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