[Info-vax] Dave Cutler, Prism, DEC, Microsoft, etc.

[John Santos]

In article <00f1190b$0$23381$c3e8da3 at news.astraweb.com>, 
jfmezei.spamnot at vaxination.ca says...> 
> >>"Until Microsoft, I though DEC had the greatest engineering
> >>organization, but Microsoft is substantially better."
> 
> If it weren't for the first 2 words, the statement would be tolerable
> since there is no longer any DEC engineering, so even Microsoft's dismal
>  engineering would be better.
> 
> However, when you consider Microsoft's engineering when Microsoft
> started, it was closer to "how to steal other people's ideas/software"
> than writing your own. Microsfoot lived for at least a decade without
> any true engineering of its own.

He's not talking about Microsoft's engineering.  He's talking about
Microsoft's engineering *organization*.

> 
> I may be biased (not not completely biased, I don't yet have apple
> branded socks and underwear :-), I'd say Apple has some great
> engineering these days. Extremey innovative industrial designers, and
> ability to integrate technologies (and open source software) into a
> slick/sleek product.

A good organization may not be essential for good engineering, but
it sure helps.  I think Apple has a very good organization and very
good engineers, though I think I found a bug in my new iTouch 
yesterday...

> 
> Unlike DEC, Apple knows how to advertise. And Apple makes it easy to buy
> their products. And their web site is far better organised than HP's.
> Customer service ? Server got delayed by about a week. They upgraded the
> delivery to "express" at no charge AND included a free iPOD nano with
> it. Did Digital ever do that ? Nop because Digital didn't speak to small
> customers.

Among their many organizational problems...

-- 
John Santos
Evans Griffiths & Hart, Inc.