[log in to unmask] writes...
 
     >Hewlett-Packard's Commercial Systems Division (CSY) is considering a
     >new update media format for HP 3000 MPE/iX computer systems and wants
     >customer feedback.  The new media is a single DDS tape (digital data
     >storage) with the complete MPE/iX FOS, SLT, Subsystems and
     >PowerPatch. This will reduce update steps, complexity and time.
     > snip ...
     >CSY is interested in your feedback.  Please respond to this message.
     >We will pursue an investigation if there is sufficient interest in
     >the CSLT/STORE update format.
 
     While the concept of a single CSLT/STORE tape is wonderful, there are
     real-world problems that may make it impractical at this time.
 
     HPINSTAL using CD-ROM is supposed to be doing the same thing, but it
     still has many limitations, ie, does not pick up all PowerPatch
     patches, does not include any MPE Express Releases, and does not
     include some subsys products (ex. OpenDesk). And of course,
     stand-alone patches still have to be manually applied with AUTOPAT. If
     this CSLT/STORE tape has the same limitations, there would be no time
     or complexity savings in getting a workable OS environment up.
 
     I don't know about other people, but we receive incorrect install
     tapes from HP about 60% of the time.  We've seen 5.0 tapes shipped as
     4.0 tapes, missing subsys products, missing FOS tapes, etc. Assuming
     the same level of quality control, the single CSLT/STORE tape would be
     more difficult to verify and correct prior to attempting to install
     it.
 
     But in all fairness, this proposal would be ideal for those customers
     with small, simple subsys product lists, and that don't apply a lot of
     patches.
 
     John Kramer,  Computer Sciences Corp.