🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1866@ccnysci.UUCP> alexis@ccnysci.UUCP (Alexis Rosen) writes:
>
>TOPS does not support AFP, and will therefore not support Fox. In fact, as far
>as I can determine from lengthy discussions with TOPS tech types, TOPS does
>not support any kind of byte-range or record locking whatsoever.

This is false.  TOPS supported byte range locking HFS calls before any
other developer, including Apple.  The stub calls included in HFS are
of TOPS (actually Centram) design.

>It is my carefully considered opinion that TOPS is in the same position now
>that MacServe was in three years ago: They currently dominate the market,
>and they're throwing it all away through marketing stupidity and bad
>technological decisions. I expect to see TOPS dwindle to a small minority
>of the market within 24 months.

It has more to do with the fact that utter confusion has reigned at Sun
for years.  They really are not managing to maintain consistent
policies faced with such incredibly rapid growth.

There is also a widely whispered but unconfirmed idea that Sun bought
TOPS in order to suppress it.  After all, they want NFS to rule the
world, not TOPS.  So far, TOPS under Sun has not come out with any
major new products, and has killed several: TOPS for VMS was killed
just as it was about to go into beta, TOPS Terminal was killed when it
was ready for release, and the stand-alone Cheshire server was killed
recently after a major development effort that from all reports was
proceeding very well.  Furthermore, Sun's promises to incorporate TOPS
technology for microcomputers into new versions of NFS have been
consistently broken.  They've also seemed to have a policy of driving
away the best people, whether in marketing, engineering, or QA.  Only
Bernie LaCroute knows for sure, and he's not telling....
-- 
Tim Maroney, Consultant, Eclectic Software, sun!hoptoad!tim
"There are no Famous People on the net.  Only some of us with bigger mouths
 than others."  -- Dan'l Danehy-Oakes, The Roach