In a message dated 98-03-02 16:36:34 EST, [log in to unmask] writes:

<<  I just recently installed a new Unix box for a customer,
 upgrading from 9.04 to 10.20 at the same time, and my appreciation of MPE is
 back up in the stratosphere again.  HP-UX 10.20 and HP-UX 9.04 shouldn't even
 be considered the same operating system; the patching process is a nightmare
 (here's a list of 2000 patches -- which ones do you want?); SAM broke, and
 after 16 hours the reponse center still couldn't get it fixed and escalated
 it a second time (it *still* doesn't work).

 I take back all the bad things I ever said about tape labels. >>


Michael - I had the same option in buying a 9000 a job ago.   HP said, if I
may paraphrase, "Really sorry about this, but we finally admit that our
version of UNIX needs to look like the real UNIX (Sun), so we are going to
make your life miserable for a very long weekend".  I chose to let the "pre-
owned" vendor do the 9 to 10 upgrade before they shipped.  That was a while
ago so the patch list must be formidable now.