Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!intercon!news
From: amanda@mermaid.intercon.com (Amanda Walker)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.news
Subject: Re: Docs for tNt, & what is Sun doing?
Message-ID: <1990Feb28.161746.9301@intercon.com>
Date: 28 Feb 90 16:17:46 GMT
References: <9002280125.AA17726@brillig.UMD.EDU>
Sender: @intercon.com
Reply-To: amanda@mermaid.intercon.com (Amanda Walker)
Organization: InterCon Systems Corporation, Sterling, VA
Lines: 34

[Disclaimer: this article purely my personal opinion, and has nothing to
do with InterCon Systems Corporation, even if they do happen to agree :-). 
It contains blunt statements--engineers may wish to preview before showing
it to lawyers or marketing managers...]

Sun seems to be shooting itself in the posterior with NeWS.  When NeWS 1.0
came out, it was head and shoulders above X10R4 in speed and usefulness,
but they didn't push it.  It was hard enough to buy even if you *did* want
it.  It seems from the outside as though there has been an explicit decision
within Sun to "target" NeWS solely as an academic and OEM product.  This
is STUPID.  Not "unfocused marketwise," or other doublsespeak, just STUPID.

Who are the most visible proponents of NeWS?  Don Hopkins and SGI.  Sun is
starting to be seen as an obstacle to the success of their own product!  This
is no recipe for success.  Sun isn't too bad at setting standards when they
decide to, but it still takes backing from within the organization.  If Sun
marketing says, "we'll push X instead of NeWS because we think more people
will want it" and then says "why should we push NeWS?  X is selling so much
better", it sure looks like a self-fulfilling prophecy at best, and bad
internal politics at worst.

My opinion of Sun engineering is pretty much as high as ever, but my opinion
of Sun marketing has plummeted to the point that I won't consider buying
Sun hardware anymore, and I don't seem to be alone in this attitude, from
some of what I heard at Usenix.  Maybe Sun should just put NeWS into the
public domain and let people who actually care about it take over.

Disgusted,
--
Amanda Walker
InterCon Systems Corporation

"Many of the truths we cling to depend greatly upon our own point of view."
	--Obi-Wan Kenobi in "Return of the Jedi"