Waxing Philosophical

[Eugene Chu]

Richard Irving wrote:

> Couldn't find any open-source Unix apps ?  ;)

Three major tools we use:

- RSInc's IDL:  Globetrotter refused to port their license manager to
Alpha Linux platform

- Rational Clearcase:  "What's Alpha?"

- Oracle:  Maybe on Tru64

We may have been able to find open source solutions for the last two,
but our collaborators around the world use IDL, so there really is no
easy replacement for it.

Oh, did I mention that the prices of the Alpha systems were about 5X
the x86 systems?  Yes, they were high performance, but they weren't
THAT high performance.

It's wonderful that some of that technology survives in newer products,
but it's long past time to move on to the new products.

eyc