From: kbibb@maui.qualcomm.com (Ken Bibb)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.hardware
Subject: Re: Why is Sun abandoning SunOS4.1.3?
Date: 20 Dec 92 22:14:09 GMT
Organization: Qualcomm, Inc., San Diego, CA

In <1992Dec19.221627.20632@midway.uchicago.edu> epc1@quads.uchicago.edu (Merlin) writes:

>Why is Sun losing touch with their customer base?  First, they
>use and continue to use a ridiculous, ugly windowing manager (olwm) despite
>the fact that a majority of their users use mwm.  OpenWindows is fine
>but I want Sun to provide mwm.  Yes, I hate paying $250 for a license
>for every Sun we buy.  

Personally, I think Motif is as awful as something dreamed up by Microsoft
and HP would be expected to be.  I much prefer the Open Look look and
feel to the Motif look and feel.

If Sun included Motif, I would have to pay for software that *I* don't
want, so I prefer Open Look.

>Now, Sun is abandoning SunOS!!!  The question IS NOT why don't vendors

No they aren't, Solaris 2.0 is SunOS 5.0.

>port their apps but WHY can't I run my old apps on new, faster hardware?

You can run many of them in compatibility mode.

>Sun is supposed to be custoemer responsive and built its successes on 
>meeting user's needs where traditional, large computer makers used
>proprietary software and OS's.  Now, they're telling everyone to
>abandon their old knowledge and apps for a new OS.  What does Solaris 

What's with the "Now" stuff?  They've been saying this since they announced
SVr4.  Haven't you been listening to the Sun rhetoric for the last three
years?

>incorporate that they could not put into SunOS???  Buying old hardware
>to support an old OS is not an option in my opinion.  They should not
>have caused such confusion in the first place.  

Solaris *is* SunOS (and OpenWindows) so if they put OpenWindows into
SunOS, you'd have even more to complain about, wouldn't you?

>If this is the direction that Sun is taking, then they will definitely 
>alienate people who bought their machines.  Sun is no better and no
>worse than other vendors who say, "do what we tell you to do when we
>tell you to do it.  if you don't listen to us, we won't supprt your old
>os forever and you won't be able to run our newest and fastest machines"

Although I prefer BSD to SVr4, what sun is doing is understandable.
If they *don't* change with the times, they'll end up being like
Microsoft or Apple.

>This is the straw which will cause me to stop being Suns and start
>purchasing new machines which seem more customer-oriented.  I 
>have been really impressed with the way DEC is remanaging their
>business and producing fast machines (i.e. Alpha).  I hate the
>fact that our group works on VAXs, MIPs machines, and SUNs.  However,
>with this ultimatum by Sun, I will not continue to purchase their
>machines.

You'll switch vendors (which is an even bigger change) because you
weren't willing to listen?  This doesn't make any sense.

-- 
Ken Bibb                "he heard the snow falling faintly through the
kbibb@qualcomm.com	 universe and faintly falling, like the descent of
jester@crash.cts.com     their last end, upon all the living and the dead."
				--"The Dead", James Joyce
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.hardware