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From: thompson@PAN.SSEC.HONEYWELL.COM (John Thompson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo
Subject: Time For Another USENET Letter?
Message-ID: <9105011759.AA02617@pan.ssec.honeywell.com>
Date: 1 May 91 17:59:28 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 60

It seems to be time again.

What are thoughts on sending HP yet another letter.  Topics that seem 
to need attention are (as I see it) --

1) The DN10000s death.  Stated bluntly, we (owners of dn10ks) now have systems
   that are slower than current technology, have no upgrade path, are piecewise
   incompatible with other systems (except disks and monitor), will not get
   sufficient X-windows support, and are essentially expensive, lame, ducks.

2) Domain/OS support.  Again bluntly, we are being told that the newest, latest,
   greatest hardware that HP has will not run with our current systems, and that
   to use it, we'll need to learn YAP/OS (YetAnotherProprietary/OS) that will be
   going away in about a year (when OSF becomes stable).

3) OSF.  We're being told on the one hand that OSF is the greatest thing since
   sliced bread, but that it won't have many of the reasons we bought Apollo in
   the first place!  Examples are file-typing, type-managers, PADs, mailbox calls,
   truly transparent networking, the network-is-the-computer concept.  Instead,
   we're being told that maybe we can get what we're giving up in a few years,
   that HP is unwilling to make their offering better than the others because they
   might be perceived as 'less standard' (i.e. better), and that we didn't really
   want to use Domain/OS features anyway.

4) Software Support.  All too often, we hear (after 6 months to a year) that the
   problem we reported is (A) not a problem, (B) scheduled to be fixed "in a future
   release" (i.e. at our whim), or (C) insufficiently documented.  Certainly there
   are occasions for all three of those responses, but they occur too often, and
   (C) is especially hard to reply to after a year.

I'm sure there are other topics.  What I'd like to offer is this:  I'll act as a
clearing-house for gripes, grumbles, and other topics for write-up.  I'll write
up a merged list of subjects for review, and post it here.  I'll farm out topics
to the suggestors, and/or write the topics up myself.  I'll post the 1st-draft
letter here, and we can hack it apart again.  I'll make edits and repost a 2nd-
draft letter, and take final criticisms.  I'll post an edited final draft for
perusal, and solicit signatures for it (other clearinghouses for the signatures
(as before) would be especially helpful).  Finally, I'll post and send US-nail
the letter to HP.

(Alternatively, I'll sit back and offer comments if someone else wants to do all 
of the above.   :-)


Please send TOPICS to me, and not to the newsgroup.  Please send COMMENTS on the
subject of (not) sending to the newsgroup.  If I get TOPICS, and the concensus
of COMMENTS is to axe the letter, I'll simply post a merging of TOPICS as a single,
final, posting to this group.


-- jt --
John Thompson       (I'M ENGAGED!!!!)
Honeywell, SSEC
Plymouth, MN  55441
thompson@pan.ssec.honeywell.com      (129.30.60.41)

A pessimist sees the tunnel.
An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel.
The realist sees the tunnel, the light at the end of the tunnel, 
and realizes that it's an oncoming train.