[Info-vax] That's just the way it is (Was Re: IPSec - Dear God in heaven NO!)

[JF Mezei]

Mr Maher,

VMS is owned by HP.  Unless you have enough money to purchase VMS from
HP, you just have to accept that HP can do with VMS (and its staff)
anything it wants.

VMS is of no strategic or profit importance to this Ink/PC company. VMS
is far from Hurd, currently at the opposite end of the continent, 3 time
zones away.

The people you have been critizing most in recent weeks are not even at
the first VP level, and there are many many many layers between them and
Hurd.

There is no "Digital" people left at any VP level, HP is back to being HP.

This is not like in the Digital days where the VMS group had frequent,
direct and easy access to Ken Olsen. And in those days, engineering also
made the decisions about product features because they had close contact
with customers. HP doesn't have that mentality and is moving VMS away
from this and towards HP's way of doing business.

Do you really think it was the VMS group that decided to close ZKO ?

I am one who has  criticised many many times the treatment of VMS over
the years.  But I have come to realise that VMS is beyond the point
where there is any point in criticising it.


Yes it is hard to let go when you have invested so much of your own
money/time/effort into VMS, especially if you still depend on VMS
business. If you're not happy with available features on VMS, then move
on to another product. That is the sad reality which we must accept, no
matter how hard it is.

Just accept that VMS doesn't count within HP. Just accept that there is
nobody in any of position of power to defend/promote VMS at the high
levels.

In the end, for all the criticism I have made of Scott Stallard over the
years because of his May 7th 2002 memo, it turns out that Stallard has
been the most honest HP employee towards VMS customers: YES, HP DOES
EXPECT VMS CUSTOMERS TO EVENTUALLY MIGRATE TO OTHER HP PRODUCTS.

In hindsight, I think that the VMS community has had its head in the
sand since 2002, hoping HP would start to market VMS and that Stallard's
statements were not reflective of HP' real intentions.


And I have a feeling that this will become brutally clear before the end
of this year. HP doesn't even care how customers will react. We, the VMS
community are the only ones who still have a great deal of respect for
the original VMS engineering group.

So please stop blaming VMS engineering when you know that decisions are
being made many levels above them.