Kemp@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL (12/20/89)
Isaac Salzman, in a long diatribe against Sun's marketing of OpenWindows, writes: > hey, i thought the SPARC release would be out in SEPTEMBER!!! that > announcement looks to me like a blatant lie. those dates are completely > bogus. The code for all three Sun architectures *was* available in September. I went back and checked my mail; on Sept 28 I got a note from my local Sun sales rep saying that the three tapes were available for copying. I stopped by and picked up the Sun-3 and Sun-4 versions the next day. > according to their release notice, we should be able to get it via FTP or > UUCP. the RTU is part of SunOS. yeah, right. the RTU is limited to some > X-hundered of preferred customers. why? because they aren't ready to support > it yet with 1-800-USA-4SUN. why can't they just make that fact explicit in > the RTF and ship the thing already!!?? i can't think of one GOOD reason, can > anyone else? One reason might be that most people don't even read the RTF, judging by some of the messages in Sun-spots and elsewhere. The other reason is that if you charge money for something, you have an obligation to support it. Sun has been *rightously* (and justifiably) criticised in the past for poor software support. If they are being more prudent now in ramping up OpenWindows, that's a good sign. If you are serious about being a "developer", i.e. you know enough to play with the software without needing handholding, then talk to your local Sun office. Perhaps they will let you run off a copy of the tape until your release kit arrives. I am not a developer, I'm an end user. I played with OpenWindows for two days, decided it was cute but too slow, and went back to SunView. When they get it tuned up, I'll look at it again. > and get this. sun announces their new DeskSet utilities - a (really nice) > calendar tool, print tool and tape tool, to go along with the other DeskSet > tools - the filemgr, etc. - that come with Open Windows. but these new > DeskSet tools are not XView programs - they are not for Open Windows. they > are SunView programs! someone please explain the rationale behind this > brilliant move. Simple. SunView is mature. OpenWindows is in development. Sure they could just stop all work on SunView and force everyone to migrate to OW, but those of us who use our Suns for engineering (or medicine, or publishing, or ...) wouldn't appreciate it. I'm glad there are lots of hungry grad students and people at places like RAND working on new technology, and some day I'll reap the benefits of that work. But, OpenWindows is not yet ready for prime time, and dropping SunView now would be premature. > i don't like SunView - because it's not a network based window system. i > don't care about running SunView applications under Open Windows. i bet if > they gutted the SunView compatibility it's performance would improve > DRAMATICALLY!! And I bet it wouldn't. So there. What makes you think SunView compatibility has much of anything to do with performance. If I had to guess (and that's all it would be), I'd say that's way down in the noise. Don't try to justify your prejudice with opinion. --------------------- Sun's position seems pretty clear to me. They are working towards SPARC/UNIX/OpenLook. They are ramping down Motorola and Intel as SPARC sales increase. I have no doubt that they will ramp down SunView as OpenWindows grows in maturity and installed base. Any other approach would be folly. Dave Kemp <Kemp@dockmaster.ncsc.mil>