topic Re: Hoff leaving HP !!! in Operating System - OpenVMS

Hoff leaving HP !!!

Jan Schollaert — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 10:10:12 GMT

Where will this end ???

From: Hoff Hoffman
Date: Tues, Sep 26 2006 3:42 pm
Email: Hoff Hoffman
Groups: comp.os.vms

Effective 23-Oct-2006, I expect to be directly available for OpenVMS and related
professional services, support and related.

Additional general information is available at <>,
and I would ask that inquiries be referred to/via the contact information
available over there, and not to the HP email address.

And yes, HP and I are "parting amicably".

Re: Hoff leaving HP !!!

Ian Miller. — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 10:16:06 GMT

As this forum is intended for technical questions I suggested discussion of this news is done in the newsgroup comp.os.vms

Here is a link (using google) to the current discussion
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.vms/browse_frm/thread/0e32d45381da4997

Re: Hoff leaving HP !!!

Ken Robinson — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 11:13:15 GMT

If that's the case, then all the announcements about the "promotion" of different people due to points should discussed somewhere else. Also, there was a recent thread here when Guy left and there was no cry of protest about it not being technical.

Ken

Re: Hoff leaving HP !!!

Dave Gudewicz — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 12:10:15 GMT

I believe news such as this is OK to post here.

Dave...

Re: Hoff leaving HP !!!

Jan van den Ende — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 12:22:22 GMT

Sorry Ian,

I am with Jan, Ken, & Dave on this.

And Jan's outcry is exactly MY feeling: "Where will this end ???"

Perhaps this time the drink will be to try to wash away the fearfull feelings about the future...

Proost.

Have one on me.

jpe

Re: Hoff leaving HP !!!

Vladimir Fabecic — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 01:11:01 GMT

I agree with Jan (and some others).

Where will this end ???

And it is not just Hoff! Guy, CMOS, Hoff and many others left HP. Is John (Gillings) still here ?

What is really happening?

P.S.
Sorry Jan, can not drink to that.

Re: Hoff leaving HP !!!

Allan Bowman — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 02:40:25 GMT

I sincerely hope that Hoff will still elect to be a presenter at next year's technical forum. His presentations always offer a wealth of information which would be sorely missed.

BTW, I did see Guy hanging out in the Bruden booth last week...

Allan in Atlanta

Re: Hoff leaving HP !!!

John Gillings — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 02:49:28 GMT

re: Vladimir

>Is John (Gillings) still here ?

Well, since you asked... yes and no. For now, yes, but I've also been selected in the latest round of Work Force Reduction (WFR). My last day with HP is 20th October.

I am also "parting amicably" from HP, and that's NOT intended to be sarcastic. Mr Hurd is following a strategy of reducing costs by restructuring the workforce. I'm not sure how or why management select particular individuals, that's not really relevant. The same thing is happening in most large corporations, and there's not a lot of point in complaining about it. Just accept what's happening and move on.

In the long term this should really be seen as a GOOD thing for OpenVMS. Consider that most of us in engineering and services are getting fairly old! Where are the young replacements for the future? Although it's called "WFR" it really isn't, as every person who leaves from Nashua or Sydney is replaced by *several* people in the new call centres and engineering hubs. These are young, keen graduates, ready and able to take on the maintenance and development OpenVMS products.

Thus the population of OpenVMS service and development engineers is actually INCREASING, and the average age is coming down. This is the future. Granted they don't (yet) have the experience that Hoff and myself have gathered over the decades, but they won't take very long to get up to speed. Look at Guy Peleg! He was only with HP for what, 6 years? He's younger than my oldest child, and look what he's achieved. In effect, he's been replaced by maybe SEVEN people just like him 6 years ago. Even if each of them is only HALF as good as Guy, that's still a huge long term benefit.

The corporation sees that they get more "bang for the buck" by hiring several new graduates than retaining one of us old guys. The last thing you, as customers want to see is for OpenVMS engineering to stagnate, and 5-10 years from now be completely vacated when everyone retires. This way it's far more likely there will be engineers into the future.

What YOU can do as customers is support the product by purchasing service contracts. Without revenue, the product WILL die. That's a simple economic fact. So, USE your contract. Log cases to ask advice and report issues. More cases mean more engineers needed to handle them. You should also feed back any complaints or criticisms of the quality of products or service you receive, but, MORE IMPORTANTLY, also feed back any positives or praise for individuals who give good service.

The biggest threat to OpenVMS is silence from customers. Make your voices and opinions heard.

Re: Hoff leaving HP !!!

Kris Clippeleyr — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 03:38:22 GMT

First of all, I must disagree with Ian (sorry Ian).
Furthermore, I wish all that are leaving (have left) VMS engineering all the best in their future careers, and I hope to see them IRL at events such as the bootcamp, or the TUD.
I can see some sound reasoning the expose of John. But I'm afraid that when all the experienced people have left, the young fresh ones are left without guidance, and that could really compromise the quality of future releases of the OS will love and cherish. To quote a friend of mine regarding that OS fabricated in Redmond:
"The problem with Microsoft is a lack of adult supervision."
Just my 2 (euro)cents.

Hoff, all the best.

Kris (aka Qkcl)

Re: Hoff leaving HP !!!

Guy Peleg — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 09:44:23 GMT

Just to comment on John's reply

(I did not want to get involved but could
not resist when I saw my name mentioned)

When I joined engineering, I already had
7 years of experience with VMS (system
manager and support center).

Guy

Re: Hoff leaving HP !!!

William Webb_2 — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 10:49:54 GMT

Guy P: Just to comment on John's reply

(I did not want to get involved but could
not resist when I saw my name mentioned)

When I joined engineering, I already had
7 years of experience with VMS (system
manager and support center).

You weren't born with a silver CLI in your mouth?

:-)

WWWebb

Re: Hoff leaving HP !!!

Ian Miller. — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 11:15:22 GMT

The reason I made my comment earlier is that I don't want to see this place descend to the depths sometimes seen in cov, and would prefer to see this forum remain technical. However this thread, so far, has been very civilised.

Now back to the scheduled programme :-)

Re: Hoff leaving HP !!!

Tom O'Toole — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 12:02:27 GMT

I don't know what the future holds, but there is no disputing that the newest release of VMS has a TON of great new features. Big Hats off to VMS engineering (new and old members) for VMS 8.3

Re: Hoff leaving HP !!!

Zeni B. Schleter — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 13:14:44 GMT

2 cents - I quit trying to view the newsgroup when this forum proved a more direct route to information that I felt I needed to know.
As such , thanks for posting this thread. News of change can always be unsettling but it is best to know. I appreciate John Gillings words of wisdom and wish Hoffman the best of futures.

Re: Hoff leaving HP !!!

Hoff — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 11:44:01 GMT

Thanks, Folks.

As I commented in the posting in the comp.os.vms newsgroup (and I mean this in all seriousness) HP and I are parting on amicable terms.

Barring the proverbial Offer That Can't Be Refused (obviously), more information will be arriving on-line starting around 23-Oct-2006.

Re: Hoff leaving HP !!!

Richard J Maher — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 10:01:38 GMT

How would one find out more about procuring the services of these fine support people once they've left HP?

Regards Richard Maher

Re: Hoff leaving HP !!!

Dave Gudewicz — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 12:22:54 GMT

>Barring the proverbial Offer That Can't Be >Refused (obviously), >more information will be arriving on-line starting around 23-Oct->2006.

I for one will be very interested in what news 23-Oct-2006 will bring.