bob@rel.mi.org (Bob Leffler) (12/05/89)
In attempting to upgrade my Xenix/286 2.2.1 at home has turned out to
be extremely difficult and frustrating. Several weeks ago, I sent
off mail to the sco aliases for sales and support to inquire what
Xenix/286 upgrades were available and their respective costs. I didn't
get any response.
Knowing that mail sometimes accidently ends up in the bit bucket in route,
I decided to follow up with a few phone calls.
Six phone calls (over two weeks and three sales people) to the local Detroit
SCO VAR I found out that the OS upgrade was $195, the 2.3 Development system
was on indefinite hold, and the Text upgrade consists of only new man pages.
I then called a Chicago SCO VAR to verify the prices. I was told that the
2.3 upgrade was free and to call SCO.
In both cases the lack of product knowledge was tremendous. I'm beginning
to suspect that SCO doesn't require it's VARs to maintain any specific
level of expertise.
You are probably wondering by now, why I just didn't give SCO Sales a call
directly. Well, the last two times I've purchased products directly
from SCO sales they have screwed up my account. One of the blunders was
that they sent my personal account statement to my employer and my employer's
statement to me. A quick look at my signature will tell you that the
difference between the two invoices was rather significant. It took almost
a year to clear that incident up.
In any case, I just called SCO sales to get a price quote. Since nobody
that answers the phone has a price list, I'm now playing phone tag with
a sales person named "Rose".
Besides the emotional release of venting to the net at general, I do have
several questions.
1. What was the upgrade path from Xenix/286 2.2.1 to the current 2.3.2
release? I heard from one gentleman, that SCO gave him a 2.2.x to
2.2.3 upgrade for free.
2. Since the upgrade consists of specific portions of the complete system,
can you upgrade from 2.2.1 directly to 2.2.3? Or do you have to upgrade
2.2.1 - 2.2.2 - 2.2.3 - 2.3.0, etc, etc? What were the changes in each
of the minor relase levels?
3. What is the current release level of the 286 compiler?
4. What is the real story behind the 286 2.3 compiler? Is it real, or
is SCO finding it more difficult than anticipated and will soon
out it on the not supported list?
Thanks to anyone that has made it this far through the message. If there
is any interest, I'll summarize any replies next week.
bob
--
Bob Leffler - Electronic Data Systems, GM Staffs, Office Systems Support Center
3044 West Grand Blvd., Room 11-101, Detroit, MI 48202 (313) 556-4474
bob@rel.mi.org or {uunet!edsews, rutgers, sharkey}!rel!bob
Opinions expressed may not be those of my employer.