Conference 7.286::digital

    What happened to eXcursion?
    
    Regards,

eXcursion is still around, but I am interested eXceed.

-Stephen

    I'm just wondering why digital is giving away a third-party X package
    if we already got one?  Is eXcursion that bad or are we discontinuing
    development and support for the product?
    
    	Regards,

I don't know anything about the truth of this rumor, but eXceed has over 50%
of the X server market and eXcursion is nowhere close.

j.

	Since I do support for eXcursion, I hear what the customers are saying.

	They tell me that eXcusion is much better then anything else they have
	seen, including eXceed.

	So, since those who have seen it like it, I have to believe that the
	problem is not the application, but the inability of our marketing
	division to market the product.

	That should not surprise any of us.  We have had so many great products
	that marketing never told the world we had.  The result being that only
	the lucky few find out about these products.

	We have been seeing ads in print and on the airwaves, but the ads talk
	about networking and the hardware.  I have never seen an ad about the
	software we have available.

	When will marketing get off their collective butts and market the
	products we produce?


	dave.

    What do you want, Dave?  An edict to the business units?  "Thou shalt
    not bundle ISV applications on Digital systems when there is a
    competing product from Digital!"
    
    Mark

    re .6
    
    From what I have seen again and again is that this company does not
    have a vision that matches the needs of those who have money.  Instead,
    we have great visions of selling solutions to those who don't have a
    lot of money or we ignore the problem outright.
    

    i thik, mark, that dave is simply asking for a fair shake.  if we spend
    enough to engineering it and make it a product, then why not market it
    as well?
    
    if eXceed is a freebie, give away eXcursion on the same system and let
    customers compare.  if the latter is really so much better, maybe we'll
    win a few ...

    >give away eXcursion on the same system and let customers compare. 
    
    Oh, sure Brad.  Hummingbird would never agree to a marketing promo like
    that!  Maybe, however, the eXcursion folks could offer a special
    "Switch over to us!" offer to that 50% market share...
    
    Mark

	No,

	I want our company to advertise the products we have.  I want our 
	company to do everything possible to let the buying public know that
	we have the products we have.

	If you have made the better mouse trap and don't tell anyone does it
	matter???


	dave.

    We use eXcursion on our home systems, and everyone I know is
    pleased with it.
    

    I would just like to understand the Company's strategy.  I just
    finished our Digital Update Product Seminars in Seattle, Santa Clara,
    and Irvine.  There appears to be some Digital product offering, I can't
    remember what it was, but they mentioned that it included a third-party
    X product.  Bottom-line we just lost the Distributor's mind share with
    regards to eXcursion.  They're now thinking eXceed because it
    must be better than eXcursion since Digital values it by including it
    in our product and eXcluding our own product.  Digital must know
    something that they don't or we're sending them a subliminal message.
    
    A number of Distributors, declared that they would NOT push the
    eXcusion product anymore in fear of Digital discontinuing support for
    it.  With the ability to sell any third-party product and our lack of
    committment to eXcursion anything else will be their first product of 
    choice.  They will NOT push products that have limited or appears to be 
    limited sales, support, and development.  They cannot afford to 
    mis-direct their customer and loose their credibility.  There are 
    too many competitive products to deal with one that confusing to offer.
    
    With regards to the Distributors I've talked with they have already
    placed eXcursion along side past Digital offerings: DECwrite and DECpresent.
    

    According to RS/Magazine May 1996: X on the Move pg. 34:
    Leading Vendors of PC X Servers, projected worldwide revenue 1996
    Hummingbird 46.2%
    NCD		14.7
    WRQ		12.3
    Other	26.8
    

The comment I heard at a large customer of ours:

"The 16-bit eXcursion was a poor product. Therefore it's a big surprise that the
32-bit version of eXcursion for NT is so good. That's real great software!"

So the name 'eXcursion' is not everywhere perceived as a synonym for quality,
although the CURRENT product is excellent. Unfortunately, marketing has to
address primarily customers' perceptions. Could this explain DEC's push for the
market leader? Sell what they ask for: the top selling product, not the top
quality product?

Ueli

    The splash screen from eXcusrion 2.0 notes that some parts are licensed 
    from NCD.  Does anybody know how much?  Perhaps this accounts for the
    biggest quality improvement?


    						-Paul

    One of the biggest advantages NCD had over the industry is that you
    could do X over a serial.  I believe Digital and the rest of the
    industry was waiting for LBX (low band X).  I believe we couldn't wait
    any longer and started to supply, XRemote, the DEFACTO STANDARD which 
    was what NCD was already using.
    
    	Regards,
    
    From the VXT conference:
    
    Network Computing Magazine March 1993 pg. 95 has an article title:
    	X The Final Frontier - Low-bandwidth X: NCD's Xremote makes serial
    			       communication work
    
    It talks about X over low-bandwidth, asynchronous communications links.
    
    It eludes to Low-bandwidth X (LBX) the name given to the technology by
    the X consortium.  It expects LBX to be included in X11R6 which is to
    be released in late 1993 or 1994.
    
    

>    It eludes to Low-bandwidth X (LBX) the name given to the technology by
>    the X consortium.  It expects LBX to be included in X11R6 which is to
>    be released in late 1993 or 1994.

LBX is now known as X.fast and wasn't included in X11R6.  Instead, it will
be part of the "Broadway" release, scheduled to be released from the X
Consortium later this year.

//steve

Why not "give" the product away, a la Microsoft?  If eXcursion-32 is as good 
as some think, give value to those that want NT-alpha.  One of the people I 
work with regularly tells me that Alpha-NT does not yet have the 3rd party 
support to match Intel-NT.  Perhaps we can bundle an "X" product in with 
Alpha-NT, as a way of making up for this.  This would be similar to the way we 
treat the AlphaServer 1000 (no NAS200 bundled) versus the 2000, 2100, etc. 
(NAs200 bundled).

Of course, this all goes out the window if the *point* of the promotion was to 
encourage Hummingbird to port eXceed to NT-Alpha. Still, I think providing 
customers that are going with NT-Alpha more incentive (i.e., larger S/W 
bundle) is one way we can leverage our good internally-developed S/W to help 
drive Alpha sales.

Charles

    eXcursion is alive and well. We will be releasing a new version in
    Q1FY97 which will provide new features and functionality. We should 
    definitely consider bundling eXcursion with other Digital products to 
    promote it and minimize royalties.
    
    Regards.
    George