[Info-vax] : Re: AXIS2/C, gSOAP

[FredK]

"JF Mezei" <jfmezei.spamnot at vaxination.ca> wrote in message 
news:4c585876$0$4732$c3e8da3 at news.astraweb.com...
> Art Wiens wrote:
>> FredK wrote on Tue, 03 August 2010 09:15
>>> ...  He should at least be willing to put names to the people he 
>>> slanders.
>>
>>
>> Richard, Fred does have a point.  You've been "telling" this story for a 
>> while.  Is it based on "facts", or are you simply  overwhelmed by the 
>> loss of VMS as a mainstream o/s and you're just lashing out?
>
>
> Mr FredK is in a rather unique position of being one of the few original
> VMS engineers outside of India to have been retained. But even FredK
> cannot deny that a lot of talent and experience was summarily dismissed
> by HP. Talent is a software company's main asset (along with
> patents/IP). In fact, in many mergers, retention of talent is part of
> the merger contracts.
>

I get a chuckle from time to time reading c.o.v.  First of all, I'm not 
unique, nor am I "original".  There are names that few of the current 
denzions of c.o.v. know - who were giants in VMS but whom few outside of DEC 
ever know of.  Those that are known and named were those who put their names 
out in public not only by the nature of their work, but by doing things like 
DECUS.  There is talent beyond my limited ability that left VMS well before 
I officially joined the VMS group.  There still is talent in the VMS group 
beyond my limited abilities.

Do I wish that things were different and that VMS was still the VMS of 25 
years ago?  Sure (well, things were never perfect - even then).  But all 
things move on.  Some of my ex-coworkers are west coast millionaires now. 
The movement of engineering out of the US isn't unique to VMS or to HP. 
While that may not make me happy from a parochial viewpoint, I cannot blame 
my non-US coworkers.  Nor do I take so low a view of them as you do.

> What is done is done. Mr FredK should be happy that his skills are
> unique enough that HP had to make an exception to retain him.
>
> But VMS has lost a lot of talent, replaced with faceless people who have
> little/no contact with the community so it is very hard for the
> community to know what VMS is about today.

As I said above, the number of VMS engineers that I can name who were in the 
past, and are today - critical to VMS has never been widely known.  Only the 
tiny percentage who were willing and interested in putting themselves out in 
front of the public.  Most of the engineers were and are more interested in 
the work - rather than getting involved in stuff like c.o.v.  It can be a 
huge time sink (I quit for a long time because of it), and it can have more 
downside than upside.