> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jonathan M. Backus
>
> Chris has written a couple very good, well thought out,
> responses ... [do] you just want to complain (be part
> of the problem) or if you want to take action (be part of
> the solution).

As my job was actually winding down when the Nov announcement was made, I
find myself in an interesting crossroads with HP, MPE, and what or where I
want to go with it.  It is just as easy for me to complain as it is to
act -- neither one changes my current [jobless] position, and in fact,
"action" at this point can just as easily be "learn a new OS" as it would be
to "actively help OpenMPE along".

> ... now that we have HP's ear.  Please complete this "3
> question" survey ...  The more data gathered, the more
> weight the results will carry for all involved.

OK, I figured 3 questions should be simple enough -- but now that I've
looked at them, I'm not sure what purpose they serve [at least, the first
two]  Even though I'm filling out the survey, would anyone care to comment
on these questions in return?  [and I suppose my questions would probably
rank me somewhere in the part-of-the-problem/complaining-cynics camp, but so
be it ;) ]

1) [basically] "how many of which type do you have?"
The first thing that comes into my mind is HP should already have an idea of
this in the first place -- they know how many units they've sold, they know
the reliability levels of the equipment, they know how many have been
returned for trade-in/up, etc.  They only need to ask the resellers to fill
in any gaps in their data, so I'm wondering how useful this question really
is -- I suspect that this can also "bite us in the nether region" in that HP
may have already made the above calculations, and can use a
less-than-steller response to justify not doing anything by using the excuse
"well, we expected 100,000 units in use, but the survey only shows 2,500 --
clearly not enough to bother with..." [or drivel to that effect]  I rather
doubt that the numbers HP has in mind would be reversed (i.e., they only
expect 2500 units "in use" and this survey would/could show 100k in use...]

2) who does the support work?
Again, I find I tend to consider this either irrelevant or possibly damaging
to "our case" -- HP has already decided they will stop support at some point
in the future, so no amount of answers that say "HP" is their primary
support channel would do any good.  saying that a "third party" does
hardware or software support is what HP already expects, so this answer
isn't likely to "change" their viewpoint or add any additional data to
consider [and the third option, "we do it ourselves", is really out there:
while it may certainly be possible for companies to do their own "hardware"
support, I suspect exactly 5 companies are even CAPABLE of doing their own
"software" support -- lund, robelle, vesoft, asics, and maybe one or two
others -- after all, when was the last time you wrote a patch to fix an
OPERATING SYSTEM BUG?]

so that leaves the third question "when do you need 'information' from us to
help homesteading/migration/whatever?" and again, I REALLY have to ask "what
possible answer would sway any [HP] decision maker?"  The tone of this list
actually points to an answer that wasn't included in the list: "we're pissed
that we don't ALREADY have that information!".  The reality of is is that
given the "various stages" most people are in, a "truly honest answer"
should end up with an even distribution of answers.  Of course, due to the
"advocacy" spread via this list, I *suspect* people will answer "we need
this now" even if they don't need it soon [if ever].  We could end up with
the "problem" that even though the survey might show 50% or more for the
first answer [now], HP may not be capable of dredging up that information
anytime soon [what with a merger to complete and all... :) ]

Tom Emerson

p.s., I'm working with a couple of buddies to build a completely new
program, and all morning I've been asking "when we do 'this' with our
program, what problem are we solving?", so perhaps that's why I find myself
asking the same thing about these questions -- what 'problem' are these
questions addressing?

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