[foxboro] Unix/Solaris (was RE: Some things to talk about)

I echo Frits's concern about the direction Invensys is taking in regard
to Solaris. No, concern is too mild a word. Alarmed is more like it.

I am alarmed about the apparent lack of firm commitment to the Unix
platform. Just last year we were promised Solaris on the Mesh for the
foreseeable future, albeit with limited functionalities -- given the
choices, I can almost live with that. But....

At the Southeast Users Group meeting earlier this year in Birmingham,
Ala., I scribbled a little personal commentary in my notes, "The news
about Solaris on the Mesh continues to be bleak. Foxboro seems to keep
retreating from earlier commitment about Solaris on the Mesh, leading me
to believe some of the earlier news were to keep the restless Unix crowd
at bay for the time being."

Now, from what Frits stated and communications from some other sources,
we can almost see the end of Foxboro's commitment to Unix. It is a sad
sight.

I have thought Foxboro's long-term strategy was to keep offering Unix,
with cut-off-at-the-knee functionalities, so they can point to Windows
and say, "See, you get all the eye candies and better functionalities if
you go down this path." And Unix will eventually become irrelevant after
all of us "Unix Luddites" retire and fade away, or at least beaten into
muted submission.

I didn't expect the end to come so fast. Wow!

Duc


-----Original Message-----
From: foxboro-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:foxboro-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Schouten, Frits JF
Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2008 4:50 PM
To: foxboro@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [foxboro] Some things to talk about

The reason why we really want to find out what's happening with SOTM is
that we are about to upgrade a plant from MOD300 to Foxboro I/A Mesh
with, you guessed it, a few UNIX boxes to do the hard slog like
modelling, data handling and reporting. We already have an extensive
UNIX based installation with all but one area in the primary operation
being Foxboro and we've developed tons of apps to do that sort of work.
Last month, during our user conference in Australia, we where told that
Foxboro is pulling the plug on UNIX in the next few months.
Can you imagine that that was giving us a big fright? All our I/A
systems are UNIX based and the new system was going to be a hybrid
system.

Foxboro I/A is reverting back to become a closed propriety system.
Simple things we've relied on for years, like CPshell, can not be
re-compiled and made to work for Windows. The libraries, needed to do
so, will not be made available. How many of you use SENDMSG in sequence
blocks to a device that actually is a program or script on your UNIX
box? You can kiss that goodbye alright.

It looks to me that the pressure from Microsoft to abandon all but the
Windows operating system, in lieu of their engineering support, has
become too great(or is it too attractive) for Foxboro and they have
succumbed to the........(finish in your own words)

It is a sad day today. Foxboro I/A was entirely designed and build on
UNIX.
Today they have abandoned their roots.

Frits.

:-(





-----Original Message-----
From: foxboro-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:foxboro-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Duc M Do
Sent: Thursday, 24 July 2008 10:26 PM
To: foxboro@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [foxboro] Some things to talk about

On Thu, July 24, 2008 12:21 am, Schouten, Frits JF wrote:

> SOTM  Solaris On The Mesh

Duh!

It goes to show that it didn't take but a couple of mojitos for me to
forget about work completely. Thanks, Frits.

Duc



 
 
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