Stan Sieler <[log in to unmask]> said:
 
>James writes:
>
>> 1. Not all the software makes the port from one OS release to another.
>
>Like LaserROM, ALLBASE, and a lot of other software.  In some cases, it
>seems to be.... never mind, I just can't comment on it politely.
>
>> 2. HP has a rather indifferent attitude to hardware/software support for
>> the 9000 family, including the 800 series servers.  For example, my 842
>> is not supported on the 10.01 release, neither are the 8x2 and 8x0 machines.
>
>Indifferent?  How about deliberately downright hostile?!
>The history of HP-UX is littered with discarded hardware ... much of which
>ended up in our computer room :(   (9000/350, 9000/834)
>
>HP has little to be proud of, and much to be ashamed of in HP-UX.
>(Ranging from internal (dropped features & backwards incompatibilities
>in HP-UX 8.0 to 9.0 to 10.0) to external (ramrodding HP-UX over MPE/iX).)
>
>
>--
>Stan Sieler                                          [log in to unmask]
>                                     http://www.allegro.com/sieler.html
 
 
Stan?  The always-super-polite Stan?  The Stan who co-authored "Beyond
RISC" and a thousand articles in praise of HP?  The Stan who has
contributed more super-duper software (that would be worth millions of
Dollars in the open market) than about anyone else I know?  The Stan who
had the brilliant idea of using Posix files to implement Jumbo datasets in
IMAGE (and who actually implemented them)?  The Stan who has provided
several million-dollar ideas to HP throughout a couple of decades?  The
Stan who, as an employee at HP, did a lot of work on backup software and
DBMS software?  The Stan who, as an HP contractor, continues to provide
brilliant solutions to the HP3000 community?  The Stan who knows all
operating systems and can use low-level debug in all of them?  The Stan
whose technological expertise is beyond any question?  The Stan whose
accomplishments are so numerous that I'm sure I missed 95% of them in this
quick review?
 
Is "upper" HP management aware of the implications of this?  You cannot
"buy" people like Stan!  You can buy "analysts" and hired-guns of the
various "consulting" groups whose (expensive) specialty seems to be to
change their opinions as the wind shifts.
 
I wonder what Bill and Dave would have to say about the current state of
their Company if loyal supporters like Stan feel this way.  The scary
question: Do they even care?  The scarier question: Is everything, in these
modern times, in the hands of hired guns whose only concern is the
advancement of their own careers (either within their current company or as
they hop from company to company without any regard for the trail of
destruction they leave behind)?
 
But then, again, maybe, as Stan says, it's just the unix side of the HP
house that's a mess.  Hopefully, HP as a whole is not that bad (I live in
Idaho, after all, the home of the most successful HP divisions :-)
 
Gotta go... The benchmark just finished and I have to check it out.  I'm
working on a nifty performance enhancement for Adager that will blow the
socks off a few people...
 
+---------------+
|               |
|            r  |  Alfredo                     [log in to unmask]
|          e    |                           http://www.adager.com
|        g      |  F. Alfredo Rego               Tel 208 726-9100
|      a        |  Manager, Theoretical Group    Fax 208 726-2822
|    d          |  Adager Corporation
|  A            |  Sun Valley, Idaho 83353-3000            U.S.A.
|               |
+---------------+