Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!samsung!crackers!m2c!ulowell!swan!asherman From: asherman@dino.cpe.ulowell.edu (Aaron Sherman) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo Subject: The old "Classic/New Coke" trick. Keywords: HP OSF DN Domain/OS Paranoia Message-ID: Date: 7 Nov 90 09:16:09 GMT Sender: news@ul-cs.ulowell.edu Organization: CPE: University of Lowell -- Lowell, MA Lines: 69 A Note: Because of a bug in NNTP, I cannot, currently, read News. Thus, I would request that any responses to this that you want me to respond to, or just see be sent via e-mail (feel free to post them, too, as I will not be able to post a summary). Perhaps I'm just seeing conspiracies behind every curtain because I'm too paranoid. Or, perhaps not. Either way, what I have to voice here has no basis in cold hard facts, and is simply conjecture. This is my opinion and is not (most likely) the opinon of my employer, my mother or George "The Brocolli Man" Bush. For the past 4-5 issues HP/Apollo has made the front page of "Unix Today!". In the beginning it was the Intent to move OSF/1 to the Apollo line, then the "Open Letter" followed by HP's response. In with the article about the response I was quoted on my feelings (mostly bad) about dumping Domain/OS for OSF/1. Around this time there was a debate on the net about the future of Domain/OS and some people even formed a group to try to dissuade HP from going to OSF/1 as an OS (perhaps as a Domain/OS environment, or just as an HP OS, replacing HP/UX). Then came HP's announcement that the DN line would not have OSF/1 ported to it because it would be "obsolete" by the time OSF/1 was out (Probably true, but not for the reasons that they are siting :). To this there was hostile user-reaction from both camps (note that this gives both sides of the OSF/1 debate a common cause, a major step in controling group dynamics). Then, in the next (the most recent) issue of "Unix Today!", HP was quoted as saying that they would be porting OSF/1 to only the DN's that had the Motorola '040 CPU. ######## Conjecture ALERT! ######### IMHO, this was an obvious attempt on HP's part to take public scrutiny off of the fact that they were dropping Domain/OS by threatening to do something far more damaging to the Apollo line (like drop it entirely). I don't think that they ever had any intention of dropping the DN's. I think that the plan from the start was to scare the user community into comming together, and then giving them a reward like a trained dog. I consider this to be unforgivable, and I will NEVER buy HP hardware or software again, as I feel that I just can't trust them (I still have plans to buy a used Apollo sometime in the future, but that would not support HP). I am not proposing an all out boycot, just letting people know what I'm doing. Of course, I will probably have employers who will purchase HP. I will warn them of my opinions, but then it's their problem, and their risk. Sorry if I come off sounding like a fanatic, but I'm fed up with HP thinking that they can jerk us around like this because we're "just users". I would have followed Apollo to the ends of the Earth, because they respected their users, but now HP has betrayed us, and I don't see them turning back. BTW: the "Old/Classic Coke" comment in the subject reffers to what I belive Coke intended when they introduced New Coke. I don't think that they ever wanted to market it, they just wanted to take the sugar out of Coke, and did so by re-introducing it as "Coke Classic" which did not have sugar (it has corn-syrup instead). Now I hear that they've discontinued the "New Coke" and changed "Coke Classic" back to just Coke. Imagine that. -AJS -- | asherman@dino.cpe.ulowell.edu or asherman%cpe@swan.ulowell.edu or | | {backbone}!ulowell!ul-cpe!asherman | | "That that is is that that is not is not is that it it is." | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------