At 12:49 AM +0100 10/7/02, Roy Brown <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>Just a WAG, but I wonder if the focus of the attempted press exclusion
>wasn't related to anything that HP Management planned to say, but rather
>to how the audience might treat them?
>
>Was there a perception by HP's management that since the 11/14
>announcement the user community has been gently simmering, here
>mollified by migration webcasts, there aroused by OpenMPE uncertainties,
>and so on - but with the fear that matters might come to a head at
>Interex - and at that session particularly - and make the 'Boston Tea
>Party' look like a mere picnic?
I was at the so-called "Boston tea Party" and my memory of the whole
thing is not associated with "nefarious" at all. IMAGE users simply
gave "feedback" to HP (without HP having to waste one penny in
"surveys" and such :-)
Nick Demos called me (and a few other techies) before the Boston 1990
Interex meeting to see if we would be interested in organizing a
"Special Session about IMAGE" given HP's decision to unbundle IMAGE
from the MPE fundamental operating system (FOS). We did and the
session's unanimous conclusion was to suggest to HP that IMAGE should
remain bundled with MPE.
Fred White (co-author of IMAGE and at the time Senior Scientist at
Adager Labs) addressed Bill Murphy (HP's Director of Marketing) from
the floor and complimented Bill on his tie. Fred then explained how
stupid it was for HP to unbundle IMAGE. Fred continued by describing
the negative effects in products that depended on having IMAGE on
the hp3000. Fred also provided some historic background by relating
how Ed McCracken (a previous CSY General Manager) had made a success
of the hp3000 by bundling IMAGE in the mid seventies. Fred was firm
but courteous. No tomatoes (err, tea bags) were thrown. Perhaps the
whole "Boston tea Party" legend started because Fred used the word
"stupid" in public, applying it to HP's management, with no apologies.
I am sure there were other hp3000 colleagues who expressed their
opinions (I could not be everywhere at the same time, so I can't
pinpoint other events) but I am willing to bet that no violence of
any kind happened anywhere.
>In which case, they might well decide they didn't want the press
>witnessing, and reporting on, the resulting fiasco.
Why not? They are responsible adults and they should face the
(perhaps embarrassing) consequences of their decisions and actions.
>But nobody from HP management would have any problems talking one-to-one
>with the press.
Of course not. Canned speeches are safe. They are also utterly
boring.
>Because what they might have to say was never the focus
>of the apprehensions.
The focus of the apprehensions is very simple, from the perspective
of a happy MPE-Image user. A happy MPE-Image user would love to see
MPE-Image survive and, even more importantly, prosper. Without
shackles. Without fetters. Without handicaps. Just good-old plain
fair competition in real-life OLTP. The majority of Adager customers
tell me: "If HP does not want (or can't) do this, then HP is morally
bound to get out of the way". Period.
I just received a private email today and perhaps I am jumping the
gun (and/or stealing a friend's thunder) by sharing the relevant
part with hp3000-L before it gets distributed to the public. But
I'll take the risk:
There's a lot of untapped potential in MPE-Image. As John Burke
so eloquently said at HP World, HP should seriously consider the
win-win option of "letting MPE-Image go". HP would win back a
lot of the good will that it lost in the last year and MPE-Image
users (current as well as future) would love nothing more than a
thriving OS-DBMS platform that (through focused tender loving
care) goes forward to compete, unfettered, in its specialized
market: Heavy-duty OLTP.
This obviously must go beyond HP's "allowing" (with lots of
restrictions) current "frozen" MPE to run on an emulator. In this
very unattractive scenario, HP conveys the clear message that
MPE-Image is ankylosed.
HP should let MPE-Image go to a good home that is ready, willing
and able to move Heaven and Earth with ONE objective in mind:
The un-handcuffed opportunity to excel. HP should transfer the
MPE-Image torch (without extinguishing it first) to a solid group
of highly motivated technical (and marketing) people with the
appropriate financial backing to do the job well.
>Roy Brown 'Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be
>Kelmscott Ltd useful, or believe to be beautiful' Wm Morris
A long time ago, I had a very educational email conversation with Roy
regarding this thought: "Have nothing in your houses that you do not
know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful". William Morris was an
exceptionally perceptive individual and a reasonable paraphrase of his
ideas would be: "You don't have to put up with substandard
circumstances that are marketed as 'necessary' for you just because
they happen to be extremely convenient for somebody else. After all,
you are the one who must pay the high overall price that, quite
conveniently, is minimized by the proponents of your little adventure".
Naturally, those who are fed up with MPE-Image should be provided with
all kinds of help to get off their hated platform. By the same token,
those who are happy with MPE-Image (and who would like to see MPE-Image
survive and prosper without artificial limitations) should have the
freedom to select a good refugee-home or a good shelter-home (or
whatever) that will provide first-class accommodations. Why explicitly
prohibit this humane avenue?
Scratching my head in Sun Valley,
_______________
| |
| |
| r | Alfredo [log in to unmask]
| e | http://www.adager.com
| g | F. Alfredo Rego
| a | Manager, R & D Labs
| d | Adager Corporation
| A | Sun Valley, Idaho 83353-3000 U.S.A.
| |
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