Re: The Greying of COMMON

Don wrote:
> 
> John you bring out some interesting points.
> 
> Is there a magic solution?  I don't think so.  The 24yr old you spoke
> of
> was right behind me...and was hoping mad that some features had been
> removed from base o/s that he hadn't been informed about and had
> heavily
> depended on for development...and as I recall stated that he had a
> goodly
> number of clients that weren't migrating up until the missing items
> were
> addresses...SOM/DSOM as I recall...

Yes, I was there and heard his complaint too.
I find it totally unfathomable that someone from the panel mentioned the
San Francisco project stuff will replace SOM/DSOM.
EXCUSE ME !!  That won't be ready for a while yet will it !
Isn't it normal practice to have your replacement product in place
BEFORE you kill the old one ??

That was similar to my complaint about unavailability of 3487 Twinax
Terminals, and the suggestion from someone in IBM when I tried to place
an order that "they're being replaced by the Network Stations".
Again, EXCUSE ME, but isn't it going to be some time next year before a
twinax version of a Network Station is available ??  Is someone asleep
at the switch here ?

Imagine if IBM built cars:

Salesman:       Can I help you ?
Customer:       Yes, I was thinking it's time to trade in my old white
                car for a new one, and was admiring this black one here.
Salesman:       Ah yes, our new 1998 model with the red & blue racing           
stripes.  You'll notice it has all the features.  Air,                  
AM/FM/CD-ROM,
Leather, etc. etc.
Customer:       Yes, but I couldn't help noticing there's no drivers
                seat.
Salesman:       That's right sir - we're bringing out a new 64-way
                power seat for this model.
Customer:       When will it be available ?
Salesman:       We hope to have it out within a couple of years,
                but that's only a general statement of direction from
                our engineering department.
Customer:       TWO YEARS !!  What am I supposed to do until then ?
Salesman:       Well, you could buy the car and use it without the seat         
        for
now couldn't you ?
Customer:       I don't think so.  If I wanted a vehicle like that I
                would go and buy a used truck from UPS.
Salesman:       Well, I guess for now you could either keep running
                your old car, or you could go down the street to the
                competition and buy a car from them - but they still
                have the old 32-way power seats, not nearly as good as
                we're going to have.
Customer:       Tell me, do you actually have a marketing department ?
Salesman:       Oh yes sir, finest in the industry.
Customer:       Oh, I'd like to meet him some day.



-- 
... Neil Palmer                                      AS/400~~~~~      
... NxTrend Technology -Canada       ____________          ___  ~     
... Thornhill, Ontario, Canada       |OOOOOOOOOO| ________  o|__||=   
... Phone: (905) 731-9079 x238       |__________|_|______|_|______)   
... url:http://www.NxTrend.com        oo      oo   oo  oo   OOOo=o\   
... mailto:NPalmer@NxTrend.com     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+---
| This is the Midrange System Mailing List!
| To submit a new message, send your mail to "MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com".
| To unsubscribe from this list send email to MAJORDOMO@midrange.com
|    and specify 'unsubscribe MIDRANGE-L' in the body of your message.
| Questions should be directed to the list owner/operator: david@midrange.com
+---