dan@soma.bcm.tmc.edu (Dan Johnston) (02/09/88)
I saw this in comp.unix and thought it should be posted
here also.
I must say that we have had many of the same complaints with
the company. [We have been dealing with them for about 4 years
and currently have 5 machines.]
Any comments?
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Original-From: wayne@fmsrl7.UUCP (//ichael R. //ayne)
Original-Subject: Masscomp (was Real-time UNIX implementations):
Summary: I can't let this one go by without responding
Message-ID: <3607@mcdchg.UUCP>
Date: 26 Jan 88 15:18:58 GMT
References: <2955@mcdchg.UUCP> <3423@mcdchg.UUCP>
Sender: usenet@mcdchg.UUCP
Organization: Ford Motor Company, Scientific Research Labs, Dearborn, MI
An opposing viewpoint. I have been working with Masscomp systems
for several years. We have 3 machines right now and there are about 12 of
their machines in the building I work in. Given the chance to do it again,
I would not have gotten their hardware. Reasons:
1) Prices are too high. I do not find their prices to be competitive
at all, let alone cheap.
2) Severe lack of customer attention. I was out at their main
office and they had signs up all over that said "Think Customer".
They must need more signs because they generally "Forget Customer"
3) The C compiler has some nasty bugs in it. I had given up on
trying to compile GNUemacs until some kind person told me to
#define register
(ie, eliminate all register declarations). The optimizer does some
nasties too.
4) I have SQRs (bug reports) that have been filed more than 2 years
ago that have never been answered. I finally gave up on even filling
them in. I think it would be almost a full time job just to file
these, there are so many problems.
5) The blend of SII, SV, BDS4.1, and 4.2 causes lots of problems
because it is such a mess that it is difficult to keep things straight.
Also, many things are not supported (Masscomp IS kind enough to
supply you with a sheet of unsupported programs. This is, however,
not complete).
6) We have had something like 10 salesmen in the Detroit area while
we have owned the machines. They do not even come out to say "hello"
to us any more. I am not sure, but I may have caught a glance of
the current one but I have not met him.
7) THERE HAS TO BE SOMETHING REALLY WRONG WITH A REAL-TIME UNIX
MANUFACTURER WHO IGNORES THE GM MAP PROJECT.
8) The company agressively tried to prevent us from purchasing a
service contract on our machines because we did not purchase a
terminal from them (this is a very marked-up Wyse).
9) I have participated in several "user-surveys". The first time
I spent about 4 hours telling them about things that needed
addressing. The last time was just a few minutes. I've given up.
All I get is empty promises with no results.
10) Masscomp refuses to send software upgrades on QIC. This means
that I get to load 25 floppies every time I have to upgrade (real
fun. Now I understand "Think Customer". I guess I missed the middle
words "how to screw the".)
I could go on about how they broke uucp, insisted that "user's do
not need that kind of documentation", supply 4th generation
xerographic copies as user manuals, forget to ship software
upgrades, ship systems with missing hardware, cripple their
systems by limiting disk sizes and using unintelligent serial
muxes, refuse to support even their own peripherals, etc, but you
get the point. Besides, it's 18:30 on a Friday afternoon and I
don't want to ruin any more of my weekend. The company must have
had a great sales staff at one point, I have been told that they
sold machines for a year from a picture of a cardboard box.
As an interesting exercise, take a look at the volume in
comp.sys.masscomp... You may draw your own conclusions.
In fairness, I should say that their hardware support is fairly good. We
have a service rep who puts the customer first. Unfortunately, the main
office even manages to trip him up from time to time. I suspect that he
is the exception, not the rule.
Also, their Data Acq stuff is reasonable. If the application demands data
acq, buy a machine to dedicate to that and buy somebody else's iron to do
your graphics and/or data manipulation. Masscomp as Data Acq is fine.
Masscomp as Unix software development machine or graphics programming,
is not.
Of course, most Masscomp customers don't even find out about Usenet
so they won't even see this.
/\/\ \/\/
--
Michael R. Wayne *** TMC & Associates *** INTERNET: wayne@ford-vax.arpa
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