Conference 7.286::digital

    "He [Rose] didn't believe that Ken Olsen is always right, and that
    engineering is all that matters.  He is reality-based, and Digital is a
    delusion-oriented company."
    
    	- [unnamed source quoted in today's Boston Globe]
    

    Not knowing a thing about Mr Rose I have nothing to say. I would 
    request that someone enter more of the Globe article so the rest
    of us can get an idea of what's happening.
    
    			Alfred

re Note 1830.2 by CVG::THOMPSON:

>                   -< who is he and what does it matter? :-) >-
  
        John Rose has led PCSG since the departure of the flamboyant
        Barry Folsom (Mr. Rainbow) through the present.  Of all
        Digital's attempts to be something in the PC market, the
        attempts under John Rose have been the most successful.

        Bob

Yesterday's WSJ (3/30) had a small blurb stating he was leaving Digital
to start his own company.  Rose didn't want to disclose what type of
business until he had completed a business paln a secured financing for
this venture.  

    
    I heard it said recently that John Rose the individual is much more
    well known in the pc world than Digital the company is.
    
    Steve
    

    PCSG  PC Sales Group???
    
    
    Don

    Rose and Geoff Burr will be starting up a company to design and build
    computers based on 32-bit and 64-bit microprocessors.  They made their
    announcement to our group (PCSG) on Friday.
    
    The Globe article was not very flattering towards Digital.
    
    Mark.

    That's:  
    
    	PCSG    Personal Computing Systems Group

    
    it only took 8 replies...

    re .3 Dunno if I agree completely with your statement... Folsom's
    Rainbow did ok financially for the company, although it tends
    to get lumped in with the Pro $'s.  Rose did the VAXmate, which
    was a financial nightmare for the company.  Rose was about to
    do a color VAXmate follow on when Ken and the Exec Comm nixed
    the idea.  Instead, the Tandy's were OEM'd and Rose was put in
    a relatively harmless position of sitting back and making money
    on IBM clones; pretty hard to screw up.  I worked for both Folsom
    and Rose; and to paraphrase a Texas senator, Rose is no Folsom.
    
    Certainly the success of Pathworks can be attributed to Rose'
    tenure, but I thought the Globe article was a far more Rosier
    portrait than was deserved.  If Rose and Burr started a company
    and there was a way to short its stock; I'd do it in a flash.
    .02 kb
     

    Hopefully, whoever gets in charge will wake up to the  
    fact that that ZEOS and others are selling systems 
    that are TWICE the system that DEC sells by comparison.
    ...for about HALF the price.
    
    Mark

From the Globe article:

"I have tremendous credibility on Wall Street and with industry analysts."

    
    Re: .12
    
    Maybe he is blowing his own horn, but if the statement is true....
    
    Steve
    

I worked in PCSG for a while, working on some of the software.  Despite the
fact that much of that software development was done on actual IBM hardware,
the decision was made (in the v1.0 timeframe) that it would only be supported
on VAXmates.

At the time, I asked management: "Are we really expecting the customers to rush
out in a buying frenzy, toss their PC/ATs into the dumpster and plunk down their
cash for new VAXmates???"

The straight faced answer I got from management was: "Yes, of course."

When that didn't fly, they decided to support the software on 3rd party hardware,
but only with our DEPCA (sp?) ethernet adapter installed.  The one that I'm
told interfered with common hardware upgrades (like memory).  So, I rephrased
my question:  "Are we really expecting ... ... cash for new DEPCA boards?"

Once again, the straight faced answer I got from management was "Yes, of course".

Naturally, that one didn't fly, either.  Finally, the word got out, "Ok, ok,
bad joke.  We'll really support this stuff on your existing hardware".  By
that time, much of our market opportunity was long gone.

Or, there was the time later, after I left, when some feelers went out for a
cooperative agreement with one of the competitors.  The other company was hot
to trot, and management at PCSG sat around for a half a year until everyone was
p*ssed off and forgot about the whole thing.

Now, was John Rose responsible for all this?  I don't know, but he was at the
helm.  

Having lunch with some other PCSG veterans (current employees, and departed
members of the department) revealed that I'm not the only one who feels the way
I do about Rose's resignation.

    Is calling someone "mr. rainbow" the same as calling someone "governor
    moonbeam"? In light of the Rainbow's overwhelming success,I'd say that
    calling that guy "mr rainbow" isn't far off the mark.
    
    Ken

    There was no gold at the end of the Rainbow.

    
    
>>                        <<< Note 1830.15 by LABC::RU >>>
    
>>    PATHwork is a well designed software, but PCSG doesn't know how
>>    to market and compete
    
    
    	Same with VAX security. We've got the best in the industry ( scarey
    	thought ) but we haven't got the faintest idea how to market or 
    	sell it....
    
    	Let's face it most software isn't glamorous and we don't seem to 
    	have the in-house know how / commitment to make it look attractive.
    
    
    						Mike
    						----

    re .-1
    Amen.
    q

    Sorry, what is VAX security? Do you mean VMS?

	Nope.

	There's DECinspect CM for ULTRIX and DECinspect CM for VMS on 
	the VAX platform.

	We're moving into DECinspect CM for SunOS ( in field test ) and
	there are a couple of more platforms in the works that will 
	all roll up to single point on the network namely DECinspect SRF.

	No one else in the industry that I'm aware of can do that.

	There are several that offer point solutions but none where
	you can define a security policy, implement it and then monitor
	compliance enterprise wide. 


							Mike
							----

    DECInspect is a software tool right? So the VAX bit is irrelevant.

	I'm not feeling very imaginative at the moment, do you have a better 
	way to describe it ?

	We've had VAX/VMS for a long time and they've done quite nicely
	together for a while now.

	Anyway this is becoming a rat-hole. 

	The point is it's pretty neat stuff but no one knows about it.

	The competition is against small competitors who can stop and
	turn on a dime. With sales people whose only business is system
	management software.

	Against us.