Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!cmcl2!nrl-cmf!ukma!gatech!purdue!decwrl!sun!pitstop!sundc!seismo!uunet!mcvax!enea!kuling!irf
From: irf@kuling.UUCP (Bo Thide)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Desktop publishing systems?
Keywords: Workstations, porting, document preperation systems
Message-ID: <905@kuling.UUCP>
Date: 28 Nov 88 07:11:13 GMT
References: <2612@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> <673@wilbur.unix.ETA.COM> <831@io.UUCP> <1429@zen.UUCP> <2703@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> <1431@zen.UUCP>
Reply-To: irf@kuling.UUCP (Bo Thide)
Organization: Dept. of Computer Systems, Uppsala University, Sweden
Lines: 62

In article <1431@zen.UUCP> vic@zen.UUCP (Victor Gavin) writes:
>In article <2703@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> richard@uhccux.UUCP (Richard Foulk) writes:
>>} Doesn't anybody write document preperation systems for Hewlett-Packard
>>} bit-mapped displays?
>>} 
>>HP makes reasonable equipment.  But it's not usually very innovative.
>>And it's often over-priced.  So it isn't usually as popular as some
>>of its competitors.
In Sweden the cost of ownership is definitely less than any other
workstation.  Extremely low service contract costs is interesting
not only for people with little money but also for those with
little technical know-how.  The HPs just don't break.  
>
>All my experience with HP shows them to be very innovative, reliable and
>extremely helpful. And this is in the UK :->
Yes, I agree.  And strongly so.  Ever heard of a thing called a laser
printer?  Think of a company who invented such a neat little gadget and has 
sold 1 000 000 (one million) of them.  Same with a color ink jet printer
with laser printer resolution for under $ 1000.  Compare SPARC and HP-PA
and then tell me who is most innovative in computer architecture.

On the software side:
Do you know that there are at least 3 billion people in the world
who use another language than English as their mother tongue?  Do you
also know that most of these languages has a different and larger
alphabet than English?  That's why standard 7 bit ASCII is usefless
for all these people.  HP realized this at an early stage and has
created the Native Language Support (NLS) which is now part of the
X/Open standard.  NLS is a blessing for the UNIX mankind.
People do other things than writing games on their computers.  For
instance, many of us hook up instruments to them.  Real time UNIX
capabilities is what you need.  Kernel preemption is the trick.
Who came up with that innovative idea?  Sun? Apollo? (Guess who!)
>
>>At this point HP has to play catch up.  So even if they seem competitive
>>now their reputation gets in their way.
>
>I would even say that they've ``caught up''. When was the last time that you
>had a look at the workstation market. HP has a massive presence. They vie with
>Sun (having beaten Apollo and DEC) for the top share.
>
>With the advent of X-windows which everyone and their dog is supplying, doesn't
>it make sense to write workstation applications using X.
>
>Then to port the software (in an ideal world) all you have to do is change the
>system specific information (ie is it a BSD or SYSV box).
>
>		vic

I just got an e-mail message from ArborText saying they will finish their
X port of 'The Publisher', by summer 1989.  HP9000 will be target machines.
Finally, they seem to listen to market demands.

--Bo


   ^   Bo Thide'--------------------------------------------------------------
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