Path: utzoo!yunexus!ists!sparrms!james
From: james@sparrmsuucp (James Buchanan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.xerox
Subject: The demise of Envos
Keywords: gossip
Message-ID: <226@sparrmsuucp>
Date: 25 Apr 89 17:09:46 GMT
Article-I.D.: sparrmsu.226
Lines: 43


Why isn't this newsgroup just bursting with gossip about the 
demise of Envos, and the future of us poor folks in the user 
community?

The latest dirt I heard is that Xerox is committed to seeing
the Medley product line continue, but not as committed to being
the ones doing the continuing. Any takers? Some immediate 
candidates should be Sun, and maybe TI (that box and this 
environment would be a great pair). Anybody have any more
dirt. What happened to all you guys down a PARC, you must
have heard something :-). 

Anybody have any speculation about whether Envos was doomed
from the start. At the launching user group meeting, former
Envos Prez Walt Samuelson said that there were 8000 6085/1186
boxes on the market, which leads to a guess of < 1000 as a 
starting customer base. With Loops a dead-end and Rooms a 
product which will be slow to catch on (why do I need it?),
and the user community already on a free upgrade path, where
where they supposed to get the revenue to cover a 40 person
staff (40 x $100,000 pp/a = $4M/a), and other costs? What
were the expectations about other revenue sources: Medley-S taking
off (when it sinks a 3-260?)?  Ironically, now that it could
run comfortably on a $10K SparcStation1 that seems like a more
plausible assumption. (By the way, did they ever finish the port
to OS4.x?)

Any comments?


   
p.s. We've been having some trouble with the address our mailer
     deamon is putting on our e-mail. The correct address is
     the one below, if the header says comething different,
     please ignore it.
    
    James Buchanan				james@sparrms.UUCP
    Spar Aerospace Ltd		
    1700 Ormont Drive				(416) 745-9680
    Weston, Ontario, CANADA  M9L 2W7

p.p.s My opinions do not reflect the opinions of my employer