[61] in Layered Athena
Re: [brlewis@MIT.EDU: Layer Team Meeting Minutes of 7 Jul 94]
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Carla Fermann)
Mon Jul 11 11:27:12 1994
To: brlewis@MIT.EDU
Cc: layered-athena@MIT.EDU, othomas@MIT.EDU, goguen@MIT.EDU
Date: Mon, 11 Jul 1994 11:26:26 EDT
From: Carla Fermann <carla@MIT.EDU>
Hi!
I have a couple of questions/concerns about some things that were
mentioned or not mentioned in the notes.
First, could we see a copy of the "Supported Unix Platforms and Future
Commitments" document, whether it is finalized or not?
About:
>>brlewis: Success depends on our ability to pull off a successful
>>multi-platform beta test program. If we don't support customers well
>>enough, or people feel "burned" by Layered Athena, it will take a long
>>time for LA to be accepted in the community.
I don't remember this point being made this strongly. However, I do
remember me saying that we (Consulting) will not be able to support
layered athena on platforms we don't have, and Naomi saying that we
need to set expectations properly (e.g., you get what you pay for).
I'm afraid that this has gotten buried in with the post-its, so I'll
bring it up again here for people who read the notes but weren't at
the meeting.
The only non-fully-athena Unix workstation that CSS Consulting has is
one Ultrix machine that we've had for a couple of weeks now. Unless
someone gives us the other platforms and space to put them, there is
no way that we can support users of those platforms. Even if we had
the machines we can't guarantee support; we'd first need some time to
get used to the machines and decide whether or not we can support
them.
Without having access to and expertise on the various platforms, the
best we could hope to do is recite to people things that are in the
document. We will not be able to help them with problems at all.
The original one-platform support plan from a year ago called for CSS
Consulting to provide front-line consulting support through OLC, and
then turn to people in DCNS or the MCC or Computer Services for
additional support. However, given that in most cases the only people
with any experience with some of the platforms in a multi-platform test
will be DCNS, I'm not sure that it even makes sense for questions to
come into OLC to begin with, unless the developers feel that will be
the easiest mechanism for them to take questions. It may be that just
setting up a mailing list with the appropriate DCNS people on it is a
better solution and will do a better job of setting expectations.
Carla
