From: pcg@aber.ac.uk (Piercarlo Grandi)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386
Subject: Re: Dell SVR$ (and Dell hardware) total lack of success on Postscript
Date: 31 Jul 92 01:19:22 GMT
	<1992Jul20.202516.29768@rwwa.COM>
	<1hBfwO#8z5pMO0y2xT58RFpP25w2zKV=esr@snark.thyrsus.com>
	<PCG.92Jul24195714@aberdb.aber.ac.uk> <gram.712228048@aim1>
Reply-To: pcg@aber.ac.uk (Piercarlo Grandi)
Organization: Coleg Prifysgol Cymru

On 27 Jul 92 09:07:28 GMT, gram@aim1.aztec.co.za (Graham Wheeler) said:

gram> pcg@aber.ac.uk (Piercarlo Grandi) writes:

pcg> Dell in particular make it very clear that unless the customer buys
pcg> a complete system integrated by them they do not take
pcg> responsibility for system integration problems.

pcg> They do not even represent that the Unix they sell will work *at
pcg> all* with any non Dell hardware. All expense of system integration
pcg> rests with the purchaser of their Unix product.

gram> And this is their mistake.

Uhmmm. I am not so sure. System integration is really a difficult
problem. Dell is not really a system integrator, it is a purveyor of
machines. To them SVR4 is really a loss leader (even if I bet they are
making money with it), a way to sell large, profitable machines to
people (like large certain large accounts) that would not otherwise buy
Dell. Just as A/UX is for Apple just a checklist item for selling Macs
to the Federal Government.

Moreover given the extremely large veriety of possible configurations,
motherboards, video cards, serial or paralle interfaces, keyboard
processors, bioses, chips and their releases, doing an SVR4 that is
*guaranteed* to work on any system thrown together by a customer is
quite impossible. There are companies (the famous VARs/system houses)
that earn a living doing that, and it's not easy.

DELL's Unix people however try hard, for a kind of "noblesse oblige"
spirit (and also probably because success in selling to non Dell hw
customers helps with the reputation of the Dell Unix developers), to
make its SVR4 run on as many system configurations as possible (just as
they try hard to supply high quality pre compiled freeware standard with
their SVR4), and they do succeed quite well, thanks to the high quality
of their development and support teams. But they don't *guarantee*
success except on their own pre tested configurations.

gram> [ ... ] it is clear that Dell UNIX is rapidly becoming a product
gram> in its own right.

Odds are that this is actually a political problem for DELL, or at least
their UNIX group. DELL's corporate mission nowadays is flogging high
margin/high value/medium price machines (it used to be selling the
cheapest//good value/medium margin mail order clones), everything else
is a distraction...

gram> Dell could make the most of this success by dropping their
gram> attitude of `if your hardware isn't ours, we're not interested',

No, they are interested, only they will not *guarantee* success. They
guarantee that you either succeed on your own (with some helping hand
from them), or you get your money back. This is remarkably correct and
generous on their part.

gram> and instead marketing Dell UNIX as a competitive product to SCO,
gram> ESIX, etc, [ ... ]

I don't think that DELL's SVR4 competes with SCO or ESIX, it's in a
superior class. SCO and ESIX have fine products, but DELL's SVR4 is
just classy. And it's cheaper.
--
Piercarlo Grandi                   | ARPA: pcg%uk.ac.aber@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk
Dept of CS, UCW Aberystwyth        | UUCP: ...!mcsun!ukc!aber-cs!pcg
Penglais, Aberystwyth SY23 3BZ, UK | INET: pcg@aber.ac.uk
Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386