VP/ix could be good... (long)

[Bill Kennedy]

In article <5980005 at hplsla.HP.COM> jeffh at hplsla.HP.COM (Jeff Harrell) writes:
>
>I've been playing with VP/ix (that's about all you can do with it)
>for about 3 months. It's sort-of DOS sort-of ZENIX. The problems
>I've found to be a pain include:

I'm going to apologize in advance for repeating Jeff's complaints in their
entirety, but my remarks would not make much sense if I abbreviated his.  I
am following up his article, but illustrating that SCO isn't the only culprit.
I have SCO VP/ix but have never tried it, ditto ISC; I use AT&T VP/ix, aka
Simul-Task 386.  It's no better, where indicated, it's worse.

>       1) Support- I do not like being placed on hold for 15-30
>                   minutes only to be told I can get an "appointment"
>                   in two to three days. It's been my experience that
>                   the person on the other end of the line ( the one
>                   that calls back in a couple of days ) knows less
>                   about VP/ix than I do.

This is not a sarcastic remark, SCO has better hold music than AT&T, at least
for my taste.  Toll free hold is more frustrating than LD hold because with
the latter you lose your patience with the LD long before you become upset with
the vendor who has you on hold.  I didn't buy SCO SoftCare because during the
30 day trial period, THREE times I got the wrong "analyst" who apologized,
profusely (more profusely each time) for being the wrong analyst and wondering
aloud why she was misassigned each time to the same problem.  In SCO's defense
and hers, I certainly did know more about my problem than she did, but she knew
a hell of a lot more about her specialty than I do.  It wasn't her fault, it
was some nameless entity in SCO.  Contrast this, if you will with the AT&T
"Hot Line".  There you get to train every phone answerer that the lights are
on, cords plugged in, OS booted and running (each punctuated by toll free hold)
when some creature refuses to allow you to proceed to the next rookie until you
provide a serial number from a 6386WGS (when you are calling about a software
problem).  You offer to provide a software serial number and now you don't
even get more toll free hold, "non-standard hardware, we don't support that".

There are humans at SCO and the problems Jeff describes abound in AT&T VP/ix.
You can wear SCO out and eventually get someone who can help.  I can't
criticize Jeff for losing patience, but you can't wear out AT&T any more than
you can make them fulfill their printed warranty.

>       2) ONLY 1 FLOPPY- This seems to be a BUG because it isn't
>                         documented in the manuals. The manuals 
>                         show examples of a vpix.cnf file that uses
>                         more than one floppy-so, WHATS UP!

I've got the same thing with Simul-Task 386, but with "non-standard
hardware", I'm sunk too.  It's endemic to VP/ix, not unique to SCO.
So what's SCO to do?  Should they throw their weight around?  When
AT&T doesn't, why should they/how can they?  I'll not stick up for SCO
on this one, but it seems that they have taken a page from the Microport
book of customer support; i.e. "if it is the supplier's problem, ignore
it 'cause we can't fix it".  Admittedly, neither SCO nor AT&T has the
science as well refined as Microport, they don't preach from the same
page when it's from their own craft, but they're learning.

>       3) IT'S BUGGY- I've found a number or "unexplainable" lock=ups,
>                      missing key strokes, sluggish keyboard response,
>                      (what the heck happened?) stuff...

Try AT&T on for size.  They offer UNIX(r) 386 Vr3.1, followed fewer than
six months later by Vr3.2, new VP/ix and everything.  The 3.1 registered
owners don't get notified of the upgrade opportunity until after the
upgrade offer expires.  The result?  "Tough tittie, buy a new one..."
Report the bugs Jeff describes?  "Sorry, we don't support that any more,
buy a new one".

>       4) DOS APPLICATIONS DON'T WORK- Several DOS pplications don't!
>                      Try saving a "FIRST CHOICE" file for example. 
>                      Or try using 800X600 drivers..

Wow! Gosh!  I posted my first impressions of VP/ix and I feel like a fool.
I waxed locquacious about how well it works on serial terminals doing DOS
like things.  How little (shudder!) did I realize how poorly it would do
on native DOS things on the console.  I've not tried anything whatsoever
that I wanted to do that would work correctly, yet they all work just fine
on the same machine under native DOS.  It's a killer on a serial terminal tho'.

>       5) THINGS GET CHANGED- The 8386 (B1 stepping) bug  work-around
>                              stops working after running VP/ix. Granted,
>                              this is an Intel problem- but, the fix stops
>                              working!

Do you suppose that's related to my mouse problem?  The first time I invoke
VP/ix (Simul-Task 386) following a hardware reset/reboot, the mouse works
just like you think it should.  Subsequent tries?  Zilch.  I've posted to
comp.sys.att, sent to my own AT&T PC 63xx mailing list, and I get empathy.
I call the National System Support Center and I get the third degree about
why I don't have a 6386WGS.

>       6) HUMAN INTERFACE- My wife uses an XT at school. We've got a
>                           20MHz 386, 4MB ram, 80MB disk, 20MHz 80387 
>                           and a Paradise VGA+ card with a multi-sync
>                           monitor. In VP/ix she complains that our 
>                           system is SLOWER than the XT she uses at
>                           school??? 

Ditto, I have a local dial up user who reported that he was happy that I
had VP/ix so he could get the look and feel of a '386.  When I noticed
that he hadn't logged in for a while I quizzed him.  He said (after some
coaxing) that he didn't have the time to spend looking at but not feeling
the '386.

>       7) SERIAL MOUSE- It works- off and on.
>
>       8) TIME OF DAY- runs slowwwwwwww.

Mine runs fast.

>    I WANT to use VP/ix! I like VP/ix! But, damm, is it gonna get fixed?
>I started with the controlled release under XENIX 2.2.1 and now have
>VP/ix 1.1 with XENIX 2.3.1.  My 30 day free support (following the 
>controlled release) is near it's end- AM I STUCK WITH THIS MESS...

Well it could be worse, you could have bought AT&T for the same price and
have gotten 90 days of non-support...

Anyone who has read this far is toturing themselves.  I'm not flaming SCO,
AT&T, or even Microport (though I've done that in the past).  I'm pointing
out that Jeff is stuck, I'm stuck, SCO's stuck, AT&T's stuck.  The difference
is that SCO and AT&T have more resources to apply to getting Phoenix and
ISC to get-it-right than Jeff and I do.  Jeff's frustration (and mine) is
that here we sit, $500 (hard to come by for a mere mortal) poorer and neither
AT&T nor SCO can make their vendor meet a minimal functionality spec.

Is it hardware?  I doubt it, Jeff's mouse doesn't work, nor does mine.  I'll
bet he's got the same EGA problems I do, I'd be amazed if he had the same EGA.
We have the same floppy problems, I'll bet this terminal (it's mine) that we
have the same floppy/wini controller.  AT&T is big enough to know better and
arrogant enough to not care.  SCO is good enough to know better and too small
to be so arrogant so they're just unconscious.
-- 
Bill Kennedy  usenet      {killer,att,cs.utexas.edu,sun!daver}!ssbn!bill
              internet    bill at ssbn.WLK.COM