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