[Info-vax] 2009 VMS Bootcamp notice

[Richard B. Gilbert]

JF Mezei wrote:
> etmsreec at yahoo.co.uk wrote:
> 
>> So you have systems given up to Bootcamp stuff and time that employees
>> should be spending on writing code writing presentations instead and
>> people out of the office when they should be on VMS Engineering work.
>> So what part of this doesn't cost HP?
> 
> I don't know what sort of budget philosophy HP has. But if the VMS group
> holds an event which is cash neutral (thus no need for an HP approved
> budget), and uses only staff from within its own ranks (so no man hours
> to "buy" from another department), then does it really bother HP if a
> department holds an event like Bootcamp or not ?
> 
> Many  engineers  live closer to the hotel than to the HP offices. It
> isn't as if HP needs to send all VMS engineers 7063nm around the world
> to new england, is it ???????
> 
>> http://gc.kls2.com/cgi-bin/gc?PATH=blr-nh41%0D%0A&RANGE=&PATH-COLOR=red&PATH-UNITS=nm&PATH-MINIMUM=&SPEED-GROUND=&SPEED-UNITS=kts&RANGE-STYLE=best&RANGE-COLOR=navy&MAP-STYLE=
> 
> 
> The succesive owners  ensured  VMS remained an obscure, unmarketed niche
> product. As a result, the customers who end up paying the big bucks,
> expect to have greater contact with the vendor, and the
> engineers/product managers need to have contact with the small customer
> base to know what they need.
> 
> 
> DECUS was the perfect vehicle for this communications in its heydays.
> Post DECUS, Sue filled a huge hole when she found a way to get Bootcamp
> running without any financial help from HP.
> 
> 
> When Apple announced it was pulling out of macworld, it mentioned that
> it would now leverage the orders of magnitudes more visitors at its
> stores, and that it could use the web to make more timely product
> annoucements.
> 
> If the HP memo about Bootcamp cancellation had mentioned that HP would
> be focusing on web-based keynote speeches about VMS and other ways to
> keep in touch with the customer base then one would have seen just an
> updated way to achieve the same goal. But HP is now cutting the last
> remaining link, and it was a damned good one that costed HP next to nothing.
> 
> If HP used its contacts with customers to decide on future enhancements
> for VMS, what does the end of customer contacts really mean with regards
> to long term development plans ?

So learn Unix.  It's not VMS, and never will be, but Unix people will be 
in demand long after VMS is laid to rest!