> In my opinion the thing that kills 3000s is not time but os upgrade
> complexity.  The manual for version 6.5 upgrade is about 1"
> thick.  Can I
> give this to a plant manager who currently just changes the
> tapes for each
> nightly backup and ask him to upgrade the os?  No way.  [...]

Why should someone who "just changes the tapes" be expected to perform
an OS upgrade on *any* platform? I seriously doubt that people who
"just change tapes" on HPUX, OS/390, SunOS, or anything else on this
level are even considered as candidates for such an operation. Or even
not on this level; how many of us would hand someone who "just changes
tapes" a copy of Win2KServer and tell him/her to run around and
upgrade all the servers? I think it's a significant compliment to MPE
that we not only consider them for it, but get upset that we can't
just hand them a manual and tell them to go for it. Maybe we've become
spoiled by the "operatorless" way we use these machines; for many of
us, whoever is closest at the time becomes the operator or system
manager when something needs to be done, and we expect to be able to
be able to hand off complex, sensitive operations to whomever is most
convenient.


Steve Dirickson   WestWin Consulting
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