[SUMMARY] Dec abandoning DU for NT?

From: Brad Block <bradb_at_s1.GANet.NET>
Date: Fri, 12 Jan 1996 09:49:55 -0500 (EST)

(I tried to post this earlier but I never saw it appear in the list, so
try try again...)

This is a summary of the responses I have received to date. I appreciate
the reply and feel satisfied by the nature of the responses that digital
is going to maintain and continue to grow their unix based operating
system.

The responses were full of information and many points so I decided to
include them all rather then summarize them. Many of these responses
appear to come from within digital (officials?).

- Brad Block
Global Access Network

--
1) harrah_at_strike.cxo.dec.com
    I do not know an 'official line' for this topic and certainly do not speak
for Digital - I am just a contractor.
    It would seem foolish to dump an operating system supporting some high
dollar hardware and software for the 'promise' of what NT could hold. Yes,
Digital and Microsoft have a strong alliance and will presumably continue to
maintain their partnership. Unix clusters are on the way - where is NT
clustering? Is NT a 64 bit operating system? Does NT support the applications
that Unix does?
    Digital has invested a lot of its resources in Digital Unix - DECsafe, LSM,
AdvFS, the AlphaServers (2100 and 8000 series). This O/S, combined with VLM
databases on the Alpha processer is the best in the industry. NT and its 
association with Digital is evolving into a robust and strong partnership. 
2) SXKAC_at_orca.alaska.edu
My interpretation of what I heard at DECUS:
Digital is trying to be first on the market with production quality
NT system management tools.  Therefore, they are devoting alot of
software engineering effort to that effort now.  They are not abandoning
DU, but certain enhancements are on temporary hold pending getting a 
port to NT.  An example of this is enhancements to the Polycenter
Scheduler server.  Certain new products are slated to run only
on NT for server with DU as client... this means some sites may
be forced down the road to have an NT server for certain management
functions whether they want it or not.
While they continue to deny abandonment of VMS, the Digital keynote
mentioned it only in association with NT affinity.  Realistic 
interprentation: VMS is being abandoned even though they don't
say it.  An example of this is failure to provide upgrades to the
certain Polycenter products which are available now for DU and
are being ported to NT but not VMS.  "Abandonment" may be stated
too strongly, but when there is no "business case" for doing VMS
ports that's exactly what it amounts to.
Reality:  
Digital has only so many software engineers... not enough to do really 
slick stuff on three separate operating systems.  By climbing on early,
they may be able to parallel DU/NT components without too much
wasted effort, but it will place some DU enhancements on hold for
6 to 18 months.  I think you can write VMS off except for status quo.
Personal comments on this... while I can see some business case for
what they're doing I disagree with it.  All this hype on the market
for "open systems" for several years is ditched for "the Microsoft 
way".  I see Digital's gamble on the market swinging to NT as an effort
to push the market to NT (well orchestrated by Microsoft).  It's
all rather apalling that the clamor for Unix/Open went on for several
years before the tools were available to run it in a real production
environment (vs. engineering / education)... now that the tools are
pretty much there the market (through Digital) is running wildly off
towards NT repeating the same mistakes all over again.  Digital is
helping to enable this dysfunctional industry direction.
3) jpt_at_namix.ENET.dec.com
I can guarantee you that Digital has no plans to abandon Digital UNIX!
In fact, we are strenghtening and putting even more effort to Digital
UNIX engineering and support all the time. We will soon have couple of
major announcements I hope will also strenghten the Digital UNIX visibility
in the markets. One of the most exciting UNIX announcements will be 
cluster product announcement when we expect to announce some really 
shuttering performance numbers as well... (so called TruCluster product).
Not to mention next new version of Digital UNIX which quantum leaps
other competing prodducts in many areas... 
4) acheson_at_oak.cats.ohiou.edu
DEC gave a strong verbal commitment to it at DECUS in San 
Francisco last month.
But, of course they were putting a LOT of effort into NT.
5) rlangrid_at_progress.co.uk
I do not believe that this is even possible for them to do, let alone 
considered. A question I would ask is what would happen to the 
Digital - Oracle relationship if Microsoft with SQLserver took over 
the show ? I'am sure there are countless other relationships that 
would be dramatically altered. Customer confidence and alliegence 
would also be affected. I think, though, that my current beliefs are 
built on the fact that it hasn't been denied enough yet to be true.
6) rockwell_at_rch.dec.com
According to industry analysts, the marketplace will be approximately 40% UNIX,
40% NT, and 20% "proprietary" (OpenVMS, MVS, etc) by the year 2000. 
Digital is positioned to take advantage of these trends with both Alpha
and Intel systems.
UNIX is a critical part of our long-term strategy in commercial and 
technical marketplaces.  Witness our work on 64-bit UNIX computing 
(the database world is eating up this capability which almost nobody else
in the marketplace has today) and our UNIX clustering program. 
Part of the software strategy is to provide leading edge interoperability 
with the Microsoft environment (for logical reasons). 
Sell out? No way! 
Partner with major players in the market (not just in UNIX)? Way.
There are a number of white papers on Digital's strategy that are available
on our web server: http://www.digital.com.
7) kras_at_syo.dec.com
Not true!  This is our competitors FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) 
raiser to distract consumers from the issues that really matter - like
Alpha performance compared to SPARC and PA-RISC.
Digital UNIX is still the primary growth market for Digital Alpha, and 
represents a large and continuing investment on Digital's part to assure
a high-quality, high-performance UNIX implementation suited for commercial,
technical, and work-group computing.
Windows NT, to Digital, represents a high-volume growing market, mostly 
driven by channels and var's - much like the rest of the PC business.  
With both Intel and Alpha NT products, Digital can offer not only the
volume x86 market-place the benefits of NT, but also the highest NT 
performance using Alpha.
Though you didn't mention it, OpenVMS is also tied into this, both from the
prospect of continued support of the VMS installed base, as well as a
suitable platform for 7x24 "NT" environment enterprise server.
Each represents a different marketplace today.  Is there conflict and overlap
in some parts of the market?  Of course, there always is; Digital's
advantage here is in being able to provide a solution for a greater
range of customers and through a greater range of channels, worldwide.

Received on Fri Jan 12 1996 - 16:47:45 NZDT