Conference 7.286::digital

	What kind of logic is that? How can you infer from the 
	announcement that we are biased?????

	We don't pledge anything to anyone. We supplied the equipment
	and told people so.

	If Microsoft wants to run on Alpha, they will. But I think they
	are running on Pentium Pro's right now.

							mike

    I think it means what it means.   Netscape bought the 2000ths
    whatever.  I could care less who bought it - the fact that we
    have sold 2000 is what I care about!

    who'll be 2001?

    The customer that buys the 2001!   rrr
    

re: Note 4826.3 by CSC32::C_BENNETT 
    
>    I think it means what it means.   Netscape bought the 2000ths
>    whatever.  I could care less who bought it - the fact that we
>    have sold 2000 is what I care about!
    
    The message says "Netscape Communication Corporation today became the 
    recipient of the 2,000th AlphaServer 8000 enterprise system to be
    shipped by Digital Equipment Corporation.".  It does not say anything
    about them buying it or us having sold 2,000 of them, it just says
    they got the 2,000 one we shipped.
    
    -Bruce
    

    re .6.
    
    Bruce - we think alike !
    
    If we 'sold' it, then is more potential spin for us field sales types
    to use. If they 'received' it, then that is still goodness of course,
    but it'd be good to know, in case a customer asks..
    
    OK - who is the 'Netscape Account Manager' ?
    
    AW

    Re .-1 - Wanting to know details of if it was "sold" or "received" or
    otherwise promoted.
    
    If a customer asks, it is none of his damned business!!   Whatever
    commercial relationship was agreed upon is private between us &
    Netscape.  If you personally want to know the details to help in your
    sales strategy then lots of luck finding out.  I fervently hope that
    no-one would spoil the publicity value of this sale by being so
    naive as to share such info with a potential customer.
    
    /Chris/

   .8
    
     ..ahem..
    
    I seem to recall we made a big point when (either one of) Lycos/Yahoo
    took our systems, 'cos we sold em in the face of Sun (I believe)
    offering to give theirs away, to 'keep' the account. And we got extra
    publicity spin as a consequence.
    
    I'm just trying to find out if there is an extra angle here, that's
    all. Naive I am not.
    
    I'll remember to use your suggested ".. none of your damned business."
    response when my punter next poses an awkward question in my next sales
    situation, and let you know how I got on. Thanks for the sales advice.
    
    

    OK - that seems a lot more savvy than the way I interpreted .-2
    
    By the way - the leverage that we obtained over Sun in the example
    that you quoted is exactly what I meant about naivety - Sun should not
    have let that info escape.
    
    No offence intended ...
    Happy Selling,
    
    /Chris/
    
    

        In the case of Netscape, I care less whether we sold it or
        gave it, and much more that they *use* it and *like* it.

        Netscape's mother-of-all-web-sites has been essentially all
        Sun and SGI, and it would really help Digital (to the extent
        that Netscape remains important in the industry) for
        Netscape to be favorably disposed to Digital and Digital's
        systems.

        (I was at a Netscape developer conference last spring during
        which Netscape's webmaster, in a formal session describing
        how to set up a great web site, bad-mouthed DEC -- and IBM, I
        should add -- while discussing equipment choice.)

        Bob

Netscape had an IBM system rolled into their server lab while I was out there -
now I don't know if they ever hooked it up - but its in there.

bjm

    The Digital/Netscape relationship has been a busy target for a lot of
    Internet folk over the past six months.  It's a real tribute to several
    people that this strong, reference message hit the wires last week.
    Someone a few notes back asked who the Netscape account manager is.
    The best point of contact is Rita Yavinsky @COP dtn 339-5571.  Rita and
    a small group of east and west coast people (including Mark Collett and
    Greg Caetano @ZKO) are the people to thank for making this happen.
    And I don't know (or really care) whether Netscape is paying for the
    system or not....if they aren't they will someday due to web traffic
    that NO ONE ELSE can ever handle!
    Remember, without Alpha there's no Alta Vista (could read that
    AlphaVista instead).  If it was easy, where's the SUN and SGI and HP
    AltaVista search engine?
    Hope this helps the original requestor.

    Re: Remember, without Alpha there's no Alta Vista (could read that
    AlphaVista instead).  If it was easy, where's the SUN and
    SGI and HP AltaVista search engine?
    
    Come to think of it, wasn't Sun huffing that it was going to knock
    Alpha's socks off with, what InfoSeek, along about June?  It's been
    mighty quiet out there since then.
    

    The Sun boxes were giveaways and they got thrown out the window so they
    could BUY Alphas and stay in business. There was NO choice. 
    I like to keep repeating this.
    
    Kevin 

    re .15  Which company does this refer to ? Netscape ?
    
    AW

    It was Lycos, but I can't seem to find the full report of this win.
    4337.144 is the first reference to it I find, but I think reader's
    Choice sent something round about it at the time.
    
    Kevin

    The latest Digital Age Magazine has an article about Lycos using
    AlphaServers and Digital UNIX.  I believe this is the September issue. 
    The only issue available on-line is the August (www.cardinal.com) so I
    can't give the details.  I thought the article on Lycos was very
    favorable and would like to see this advertised.  I don't know if the
    AlphaServer is up and running though.  When it is I hope that they
    put the Alpha Generation logo on their homepage.
                  	
    

>    Come to think of it, wasn't Sun huffing that it was going to knock
>    Alpha's socks off with, what InfoSeek, along about June?  It's been
>    mighty quiet out there since then.

    I saw something about it in last weeks "INTER@CTIVE WEEK".  They had a
    small article that said sun's new search engine is(or maybe will be) 
    10 time faster than Altavista.  

    I think the 10x performance claims comes from Sun's original
    announcement where they said InfoSeek would be able to handle 10 x 
    the number of hits/day that AltaVista was then handling.  

    -Bruce

    http://www.digital.com:80/.i/info/alphaserver/news/lycos796.html
    
    Digital Alpha, UNIX, StorageWorks to Power Lycos,
    World's Largest Web Index of More Than 55 Million Urls
    
    ... Supercharged CentiSpeed Search uses Digital's 64-bit technology ...
    
    MAYNARD, Mass. -- July 22, 1996 -- Digital Equipment Corporation
    announced today that Lycos Inc. (NASDAQ: LCOS), of Marlboro, Mass., a
    premier Internet search and guide company, will power the Lycos free
    World Wide Web service with Digital's 64-bit Alpha systems, 64-bit
    Digital UNIX operating system, and StorageWorks data storage
    technology. 
    
    ...

    Re: .18
    
    And while you're reading that September issue of Digital Age magazine,
    check out the feature article on OpenVMS futures. Boy, the guy who
    wrote that must have his head in the clouds or be on drugs or
    something!

    re .last
    Is this you the article is referring to:  Digital's Steve Dipirro, a
    consulting software engineer with Digital, to enlighten us on the
    strategic plans for OpenVMS....
    
    The article that .21 is referring to is: OpenVMS: The Next Generation.
    
    There is a testimonial from Mike Randall, Information Services bureau 
    chief at the Montana Department of Transportation, from his remarks 
    this individual loves OpenVMS so much that he would probably give his 
    first born rather than switch.

    "Digital's OpenVMS is the most reliable and secure operating system
    around.  It's the best on the market for what we're doing.  OpenVMS 
    is a workhorse and it's bug-free."
    
    The article is very postive and favorable on OpenVMS, not just because
    it's in Digital Age, which typically has negative articles.  It's well
    written and information.  Putting most things in perspective better
    than most internal document e.g., Windows NT and OpenVMS strategy.
    
    However, I'd like to enlighten this individual over a few beers, see
    note 4775, on who will have the most OpenVMS user's in the next couple
    of years - Digital or Montana Department of Transportation.  Digital
    itself doesn't think OpenVMS, or even its UNIX product, is work deloying
    it's Corporate Organization on.  We're moving to Windows NT and we get
    OpenVMS and Digital UNIX for FREE.  But we'd rather PAY, talk about
    watching expenses.  I bet Dave Culter at Mircosoft would laughing himself
    if he knew about this idiotic decision.  I always thought the guy was
    alittle arrogant but this just fuels his fire.  He's definitely going
    to get the last laugh and make DEC eat crow while he does.

    	The internal deployment of Exchange mail on NT is [I believe] more
    of a cost/benefit issue; ALL-IN-1 clusters are expensive to maintain
    (hardware, power and all the people it takes to glue it together). 
    Since we already have the piece on the desk, the incremental cost is
    less.  But note that the cost per seat is likely higher.
    
    	Yeah, I love VMS too.  I used to complain about some of the
    software problems, but when I got into WIN-world I got a true
    appreciation for the engineering efforts of VMS and all the related
    products.  Bug free is probably an overstatement, but VMS is light
    years ahead of other OS.
    
    	I work for CCS, there are applications that the business depends on
    that will likely never move from VMS.  We're now working the change
    from VAX to Alpha.  And, when you place a call to CCS, worldwide your
    call is logged on a system running VMS on 2100 clusters. 

    Since we already have the piece on the desk, the incremental cost is
        less.  But note that the cost per seat is likely higher.
    
    ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
    
    Maybe in some locations, but this is a VT1000 not a PC and I am in VMS
    not DOS or Windows.  This (field) location has a few pc's laying about,
    but the production is done on the old workhorse VAX.  I still have to
    hear what are we going to do, have to run PC's then where do we get
    them?  Who pays for them?  I worked in the Denver MCS office as
    recently as February 1996, they were using VT220's and the like, not 
    PC's the field is not flush with PC's... I guess that is one way to 
    force pc sales.
    
    Dave

>>    The internal deployment of Exchange mail on NT is [I believe] more
>>    of a cost/benefit issue; ALL-IN-1 clusters are expensive to maintain
>>    (hardware, power and all the people it takes to glue it together). 
>>    Since we already have the piece on the desk, the incremental cost is
>>    less.  But note that the cost per seat is likely higher.
    
    Pardon me, if ALL-IN-1 runs on an Alpha running OpenVMS and
    Exchange runs on an Alpha running NT and users connect to either
    with the Exchange client or the TeamLinks client, where is 
    the cost savings?  
    If you are comparing existing infastructure with boxes 
    that require higher hardware maintanence ok, but if you are 
    running similar configurations where do you save money?
    
    And who are all the people that it takes to glue it together?   
    or is this another microsoft marketing myth?
    
    angela
    

    
    	Re: the last 2 replies
        
    .-2
    	This is being written via a VT220, always one of my favorites.  My
    organization has not yet sourced me a PC but has moved on to Exchange
    mail.  It's interesting, to say the least.  You have a valid point and
    one that I make with cost per seat.  A VT220 is $X, a minimum PC config
    with all the nice software is $X * 5 or more, plus all the support that
    goes with the PC, and all the software that gets licensed for the PC,
    etc. etc. 
    
    .-1
    
    Yup, we've bought into it lock, stock and whatever.  My guess is that
    since this is published as a core compentency (recent strategic
    direction announcements) we have to endorse and run with it,
    regardless.  You have to admit though, it sure displays PostScript
    documents real well :*)
    
    	Leo