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From: schuh@demon.siemens.com (Christian Schuh)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo
Subject: Re: Time For Another USENET Letter?
Message-ID: <59918@siemens.siemens.com>
Date: 2 May 91 17:03:14 GMT
References: <9105011759.AA02617@pan.ssec.honeywell.com>
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In article: <9105011759.AA02617@pan.ssec.honeywell.com> John Thompson writes:

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

I think you are right - a net letter seems necessary. 

>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.

Exactly! 

>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).

I still think Domain/OS should have been ported to HP-PA RISC though. It was
ported from m68k to a88k, so why not for HP-PA?. If they had started early 
enough, they probably would have a running version for the 700 Series now. 
But the way things are now, I agree with your opinion, that it is too late.
It might make more sense to pressure for a quicker release of OSF/1 and the
immediate adition of Domain/OS features.

>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.
      
See above. Release OSF/1 together with the Series 700, and start adding Domain-
OS features earlier than planned.

>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

Thanks for your offer to do all this, your efforts are highly appreciated.

>John Thompson       (I'M ENGAGED!!!!)
                     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ --> Congratulations!

Chris