>>>>> Dan Mercer writes:

> In article <[log in to unmask]>,
> David Masterson <[log in to unmask]> writes:
>>>>>>> Ulrich Windl writes:

>>> These days, support makes $$$, not hardware, not software. As UNIX
>>> systems work most of the time, there's little potential in
>>> support. MS-Windows systems however can be ruined quite easily and
>>> it's not obvious what caused the problem. There you can make a
>>> good support deal. That's why companies like MS-Windows that
>>> much. I guess.
>>
>> But MS-Windows is a much simpler environment than UNIX and,
>> therefore, requires less support.

> I've heard that said,  but have yet to see it demonstrated.

I was kidding and spouting the party-line...  ;-)

> If you mean a trained monkey (MSCE trained, of course) can hit the
> right buttons in the right dialogs and get it to run, OK.  If you
> mean get it to run with the same robustness as a UNIX system, then
> no.  I have a PC and an HP workstation.  Actually, I've had 3 PC's
> and 5 hard drives and 5 monitors in the time I've had my one HP.

Hardware and O/S are two different things...

> If you count in replacing bad drives (none for HP) bad monitors
> (none for HP),

You were lucky -- the group I was in was seeing many more problems
with HP 9000 server hardware than with (say) the Compaq ProLiants
across the server farm aisle.  YMMV

> re-installing OS's (well I did upgrade to HP-UX 11), reboots (NT
> hundreds including installations and BSOD's, HP once to fix a
> problem that turned out to be the network - so the reboot didn't
> help) not to count all the times my painfully arranged desktop has
> simply gotten clobbered, I spend a hell of a lot more time
> supporting NT than HP.

True.  Even if you get systems with good hardware, the (NT) O/S
support will kill you.

> Commodity software on commodity hardware - that's the promise (hype)
> of NT.  Problem is when you commit your critical missions to NT and
> the hardware breaks or the OS craps out - where are you then?  Not
> where you want to go.

Plus, you still have to pay Uncle Bill his (escalating) pound of
flesh.

> Carly has been a disaster for HP-UX.  You got HP producing printers
> that can't be used on Unix hosts - no office software - Applixware
> has stopped porting to HP-UX, StarOffice has never been ported.
> Declining support for CDE - which was originally their baby!  I
> could go on and on.  The Compaq deal is the icing on the cake - just
> when the bottom falls out of the PC market and the margins are razor
> thin, then she wants to buy Compaq.

Somebody must've been having a fire sale...

>>> No-one can be fired because he decided to use MS-products...

>> Not yet...  ;-)


--
David Masterson                dmaster AT synopsys DOT com
Sr. R&D Engineer               Synopsys, Inc.
Software Engineering           Sunnyvale, CA

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