thompson@PAN.SSEC.HONEYWELL.COM (John Thompson) (04/05/91)
Okay HP people, please explain something to me. I would _love_ to get some new hardware in house. I realize that Domain/OS is going away (even if I don't want it to). I would be willing to move to OSF (since I know I'll be pushed there eventually) if I were able to keep the current hardware and software interfaced with it. I can't. We have multi-millions of dollars worth of Apollo and HP/Apollo hardware and Cadence, Mentor, and other 3rd party software. There is no way that I could justify throwing it all away. There is also no way that I can justify buying a 9000/700 box, and placing it on the ethernet as a standalone system. I _need_ to interface it with (at least) our internal tools. (After that, I can start beating up the other vendors.) This has been asked before, but why is HP-UX getting a continued free ride? Is it superior to OSF, so that HP-UX users need a longer transition period before they can be convinced to transfer to OSF, or is it so inferior that you expect all the HP-UX people to be running away from HP-UX (which can then be dropped quietly)? Why aren't you providing Domain/OS support for the new hardware? Is it because you don't think that the Apollo people would go over to OSF, if they were given a choice? > (from the projected dates for Domain/OS from Rich Wilkie) > SR10.5 will release mid-1992 and will contain support for the DCE So I'll have to wait until mid-1992 before I can run the snake boxes in the same network as my current Domain? The way things go, do you really expect that I'll _want_ to run a mere 70 Specmark machine a year and a half from now? If I have to wait for more than a year before I can use the new hardware, it isn't new any more! In fact, from observations, it's on it's last legs! Witness the fact that the 400 series boxes are less than a year old, and are already being pushed out by the 425/433 series (if Motorola can get chips that work), and by the 40 MIPS upgrade that'll be available "real soon now.") If I were to rate a 400 series node against the stuff that'll be available in 6 months (we got our first 400 series nodes in September, and were one of the first Domain/OS customers to get them (_the_ first Mentor customers)), it would _lose_ big time! Let's face it, in 6 months, a 12 MIPS machine just won't be worth getting excited over. The summary of all this whining is this: What do you expect us to do? If we're going to have to throw out our investment, we might as well start looking at Sun, Dec, IBM, and every- body else. I can guarantee that we won't be looking hard at the vendor that's costing us millions in depreciation writeoff. If we don't throw out our investment, what do we do for the next year to year-and-a-half? -- jt -- John Thompson Honeywell, SSEC Plymouth, MN 55441 thompson@pan.ssec.honeywell.com Me? Represent Honeywell? You've GOT to be kidding!!!
daifuku@yumyum.esd.sgi.com (Peter Daifuku) (04/05/91)
With respect to the HP9000/700 series running HP/UX and not Domain/OS: As an ex-apollo engineer, I don't believe that I'm revealing major trade secrets by saying that the decision came down to one of resources (as these decisions usually do). The simple reality is that HP/UX already ran on the previous PA-RISC platforms, so making it run on the 700 series was a minor effort. In comparison, making Domain/OS run on the 700 series was a major effort, comparable to bringing up Domain/OS on the original DN10000. I personally don't believe that the decision reflects any pro-HP/UX bias on the part of HP management. They decided instead to concentrate all of their development efforts on OSF. Of course, you're free to disagree as to the wisdom of the decision. (And of course, this in no way is meant to be an official HP position). Peter Daifuku Silicon Graphics daifuku@sgi.com Mountain View, CA 94039 ---------------------------------------------------- Knowledge is power! Now, who said that?