I agree with Doug on this.  Yesterday, I was faced with this very question
on a 9000 system.  I was told we had to have a web-server installed by
tomorrow.  I have no prior experience with hosting web-servers and was a
little anxious about what it would take to do this.  Because the programmer
recommended Apache, I downloaded it and reviewed the documentation.  We are
still having trouble getting it to work.  In the meantime, I contacted my
local HP tech to find out what was available from HP and found out Netscape
Fasttrack came pre-installed.  She faxed me the instructions to get it going
and it was up within minutes.  Since I'm pulled in many different
directions, I told the programmer he could continue to "play" with Apache,
but I was reporting that we had a working web-server on the system which is
what I was requested to do.

Being able to pick up the phone and call HP (or another vendor) for support
or for fixes means a tremendous amount to me.  There are enough variables
involved without adding any more.  I agree that HP support isn't perfect and
I've had support problems in the past, but it is a starting place and they
do solve a majority of the problems we have.  If I have a choice, I will
choose a supported licensed product over freeware for any "mission-critical"
application.

Kara Strunk
Data Systems Manager
[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Maritz Marketing Research Inc.

                -----Original Message-----
                From:   John Zoltak [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
                Sent:   Tuesday, February 02, 1999 1:12 PM
                To:     [log in to unmask]
                Subject:        Re: Public Domain Software (was NewsWire
BULLETIN: HP adopts Apache for 3000)

                Doug Werth wrote after Bruce Toback,

                >To a certain extent this has long been a CYA issue as much
as anything
                else.
                >The purchase of a product or license to use comes with an
expected
                warranty
                >from the company concerning both support and longevity. If
it doesn't
                work
                >as advertised you have someone to blame. Public domain
types of
                software
                >comes with neither support nor longevity "guaranteed."
Thus, you have
                nobody
                >to point a finger at except for the person who recommended
using said
                >software.

                "Expected warranty" doesn't mean working software. Haven't
you seen
                commercial products with continuing bugs. Just because we
have HP or
                Microsoft to blame doesn't make me feel any better. With
public domain
                software, I have the ability to fix it myself or hire
someone to fix it.
                Usually though, fixes come pretty fast. Maybe I'm way off,
but in my
                experience, expected warranty doesn't seem to account for
much.

                John Zoltak
                North American Mfg Co