chuck@uport.UUCP (Chuck Hickey) (10/16/87)
People's UNIX -
Now More Than Ever
Recently Microport received a few critical comments on the
net about our policies. These comments are appreciated and
have been used by us in shaping our new policys. In just
the last few weeks we have made so many improvements in our
products, and policys that I'd like to take the time here to
fill you all in.
The Microport philosophy from day one, has been to sell the
high quality AT&T/Intel standard UNIX systems at a price
that any software developer could afford. Just barely a
year ago we were ten guys in a garage. Now we are over
fifty people and we are shipping thousands of units a month
world-wide. For the past six months or so this
transition has been a real strain. We've added so many new
products, and our installed base has grown so quickly that
it would have been a real miracle if we hadn't gotten in
over our head in shipments and support. We simply haven't
been able to order phone lines, by product materials, and add
support people fast enough. During the startup phase, our
primary goal was to be first to market with the latest
products. We are now passing out of the startup phase, into
a more mature growth phase, where improving the quality of
our products and services and the efficiency of our
operation is the primary goal.
To accelerate this process we are relying on a tried and
true method: Top-notch management, lots of capital, and a
dedicated and well trained work force. Starting just last
month we've added three grey-haired veterans in key areas,
and have begun a major upgrade of our operations.
None of these guys know the C declaration for a pointer to a function
that returns a pointer to a function, in fact they don't know C at
all, but they know alot about running a software business.
The most notable addition to our staff is Ted Ferguson as VP
of marketing, with over twenty years of experience. Ted was
one of the first real UNIX marketing people, being involved
with Onyx on the very first commercial port of UNIX to a
micro. He has quickly assembled a product marketing team to
refine the quality and completeness of every product in our
offering. In just the last two weeks, one of his new
product managers has worked closely with engineering,
support and shipping, to make sure that the product we ship
contains the latest revision of the software, properly
tested and packaged. We've never had this type of
coordination before.
Another new key player is Stan Phillips, also a twenty year
veteran of this industry. Stan, with his military
background, is whipping our shipping, support, and order
taking operations in line. One of his recent
accomplishments has been automating our inventory control
system. For the first time we now are generating daily back
order reports which we are using to dramatically decrease
our back-order situation. To this team I've also added Don
Fluken as CFO, a twenty five year veteran, and one of the
top finance people in the Silicon Valley. Early in his
career at Ford he ran entire factories. Don was responsible
for straightening out many of the same problems when he was
at Micropro as their staff increased from thirty to over
five hundred people and sales increased twenty fold.
The issue of support is a key one, and we are hustling to
improve the quality of support. As the first step, 800
number toll-free support has been restored to support
contract customers. We have added additional 800 telephone
lines, and will be further expanding the Support Staff.
More formal and comprehensive update policies are now in
place as well.
These changes are just the beginning of a new, more
business-like Microport. The vision hasn't changed - real
UNIX at a reasonable price. Turning this concept into a
well run business just involves more hard work.
I am interested in hearing your comments, particularly if in
the past you have had problems with our products or our
support. Since I am on the road a lot, and cannot always
access the net, feel free to call me with your comments at
800/722-8649 or in California 800/822-8649.
Charles Hickey
President and Founder
Microport Systems, Inc.roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) (10/16/87)
In article <163@uport.UUCP> chuck@uport.UUCP (Chuck Hickey) writes: > People's UNIX - > Now More Than Ever Isn't this type of material better suited to the corporate background sheet that goes out in the promo folder along with the 4-color glossy literature? Since it seems that you are selling a new product (namely new and improved corporate management), maybe I could see myself stretching the limits of my imagination and just barely approving of this on comp.newprod. But on unix-wizards? Give me a break! BTW, if Microport really is selling "People's UNIX", maybe they should call it Bolshevix? -- Roy Smith, {allegra,cmcl2,philabs}!phri!roy System Administrator, Public Health Research Institute 455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016
mikep@ism780c.UUCP (Michael A. Petonic) (10/18/87)
In article <163@uport.UUCP> chuck@uport.UUCP (Chuck Hickey) writes: > > People's UNIX - > Now More Than Ever > > > Recently Microport received a few critical comments on the > net about our policies. These comments are appreciated and > have been used by us in shaping our new policys. In just > the last few weeks we have made so many improvements in our > products, and policys that I'd like to take the time here to > fill you all in. > > [ blatant plugs deleted for brevity ] > > Charles Hickey > President and Founder > Microport Systems, Inc. After sifting through about 2K of raves for Chuck Hickey, I wondered "Where's the beef." People have real problems that they posted on the net in hopes for a response from people who had encountered the problem and solved it. Now Chuck comes on with a blatant plug for his company. Note that this is one of the few times that I'm going to include a disclaimer at the bottom of my article. I feel that it's important to know that I am speaking as a normal hacker as opposed to one who works for INTERACTIVE Systems. All of these opinions are mine and not necessarily held by my boss nor his [ nor his ...]. If I get fired for this, it's worth it. I have to get this off of my chest. **** FLAME ON **** We don't read comp.unix.wizards in order to understand the organizational chart of MicroPort. We come for information. I try to keep out of it as much as possible, but this is too much. I also don't try to mention our products unless there's a need to. Now, on to some vehament flaming! I've seen articles around various trade magazines (ex, UNIX World) that were run by Microport. In one section they say (and I quote) : "System V/386...developed specifically for the 386 by AT&T, Intel and Microport . . ." I think the only thing that MicroPort put into that product is their drivers. In fact, some of the other engineers around here posted the article on the bulletin board for some laughs. What did I work on for the last X months? Graffiti? I was under the impression that the hacking that I was doing at INTERACTIVE was going into the "Official" port of 386 UNIX. Did someone lie to me? After all, it's pretty much common knowledge that INTERACTIVE Systems Corp. of Santa Monica did the work for the official INTEL 80386 Port of UNIX System V, release 3. To my understanding, it's the one that all others are based off of. If only the drivers are Microport's, then I think there should be a *note at the bottom of the ad. The ad gives the impression that INTEL payed bucks to Microport to port the Operating System. In short, it verges on blatant lies. **** FLAME OFF **** I don't dislike Microport. I can understand their situation, trying to make a name for themselves in the marketplace, etc. But by putting information in advertisements that may lead people into thinking the wrong thing is too far. Also, putting blatant plugs into the Net is something that is uncalled for. Have you noticed that I haven't said our product is better or anything? I can't make that decision, only the buyer can. Just because or product really is better, doesn't mean anthing (ouch :-). ^W Ooops, it seems that vi doesn't want to cooperate and my line remains. Oh well. Ahhh, that felt good. -MikeP Member of the Technical Staff 213-453-8649 x3187 INTERACTIVE Systems Corporation 2401 Colorado Blvd. Santa Monica, CA. 90404. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= DISCLAIMER -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- The views that I expressed in my violent flame were just mine. I'm just reading the net and havin' fun. No one put me up to it (what's that? My twenty bucks? Ok, I'll take it now.) and I can't guarentee that anyone else here agrees with it, but that's the chance I take.
gk@kksys.UUCP (0000-Greg Kemnitz) (10/18/87)
In article <2964@phri.UUCP> roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) writes: >In article <163@uport.UUCP> chuck@uport.UUCP (Chuck Hickey) writes: (content of Mr. Hickey's posting deleted) > Isn't this type of material better suited to the corporate >background sheet that goes out in the promo folder along with the 4-color >glossy literature? Since it seems that you are selling a new product >(namely new and improved corporate management), maybe I could see myself >stretching the limits of my imagination and just barely approving of this >on comp.newprod. But on unix-wizards? Give me a break! (flame on) Normally I would have to agree with you on this, but in this case I think the large amount of "Microport-bashing" that has gone on in these newsgroups recently justifies his posting. After all, he *was* trying to explain that they are working to resolve their internal difficulties and be more responsive to the user community. The recent discussions about bugs in the Microport product, while no doubt correct, and certainly useful to readers of these news groups, unfortunately have the potential for doing a great deal of harm to a company who, based on Mr. Hickey's comments, is making a legitimate effort to improve. Agreed, they *have* had problems with their product. Many of these problems are reported to be fixed in their latest release (2.3, which is now available). Many people are citing the existance of these *fixed* problems as a reason *not* to purchase their product. More have accused them of not being responsive to users needs, in many cases complaining about the very issues he addresses. The man has a right to respond to criticism, IN THE FORUM IN WHICH THE CRITICISM IS DELIVERED. (flame off) Please, don't condemn Microport's product without rationally considering all the pluses and minuses, and CHECKING THE CURRENT STATUS of the comments. Things -DO- change. > BTW, if Microport really is selling "People's UNIX", maybe they >should call it Bolshevix? It appears you forgot the 'smiley' at the end of the last line... :-) DIsclaimer: I have no association with Microport other than as a relatively satisfied user who has gone through h*ll dealing with a company suffering growing pains, and has generally found them making a sincere effort to fix their problems. Now, if only they could get our backordered Merge/286 on the way to us! (1/2 :-) , they say they lost track of the order and promised it would ship last Thursday) Followups to alt.flame, please... -- Greg Kemnitz | amdahl \ K and K Systems | ihnp4 !meccts!kksys!gk P.O. Box 41804 | rutgers/ Plymouth, MN 55441-0804 | AT&T and clones: (612)475-1527
Dion_L_Johnson@cup.portal.com (10/19/87)
Roy Smith writes, speaking about the Microport president's comments in this forum: "Isn't this type of material better suited to the corporate background sheet ..... maybe I could see myself just barely approving of this on comp.newprod. But on unix-wizards? Give me a break!" I think it was very much in order for Mr. Hickey to answer in this forum, since it was here that his company had come in for some amount of criticism about matters of support and marketing. Furthermore, regardless of his choice of words, I think it was a reasonably open and appealing statement of philosophy and intentions. Such open discussion, especially when the vendors of systems participate, will eventually lead to a more responsive marketplace, and better systems for us all. Dion L Johnson (These are my opinions only. I hope my employer agrees.)
daveb@llama.rtech.UUCP (Dave Brower) (10/20/87)
In article <2964@phri.UUCP> roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) writes: >In article <163@uport.UUCP> chuck@uport.UUCP (Chuck Hickey) writes: >> People's UNIX - >> Now More Than Ever > > Isn't this type of material better suited to the corporate >background sheet that goes out in the promo folder along with the 4-color >glossy literature? Since it seems that you are selling a new product >(namely new and improved corporate management), maybe I could see myself >stretching the limits of my imagination and just barely approving of this >on comp.newprod. But on unix-wizards? Give me a break! Microport has been blasted heavily in many newsgroups over the last 6 months or so. It seems fair to me for the president of the company to post a response indicating what they are doing about those gripes. I don't remember the last time Ken Olsen or Andy Bechtolsheim defended their companies support policies on the net. -dB Cogito ergo zoom... {amdahl, cbosgd, mtxinu, ptsfa, sun}!rtech!daveb daveb@rtech.uucp