I 'rail' on them for the same reason I 'railed' on IBM and their failure
to consider their market and the future of OS/2.
I think the PM2s are quite possiably the *best* terminal servers on the
market, but Livingston has demonstrated that they are unable to keep pace
with that market. It saddens me that this great solution that I really,
really like using is not enough for my current needs.
Don't get me wrong, I have no love for Ascend, but I feel that the MAX
product line will scale MUCH better than the current offerings from
Livingston. The MAXs have a year of hardware and software history behind
them. It is a 'maturing' product. Yes, it has problems, but there are
more problems that have been identified and solved than remain to be
fixed.
I'll be watching this list very closely when the PM3 is released.
My interest in Radius and Livingston at this point is to create a radius
that allows easy scaling of WHATEVER solution one wishes to implement.
I'm not a fan of the 'If its Blue, buy it." method of hardware/software
selection. Livingston seeks to corner their market and hold customers to
a potentially dead end platform by making ISPs dependant on THEIR
software.
Fine. This is their choice. I've invested a good deal of time into my
radius solution and it only benefits the community at large if I am able
to contribute something back that allows interoperation with ALL
platforms.
Livingston PM2s, PM3s
Ascend MAX
Cisco AS5200
Computone Intelliserver PowerRacks
If Livingston's business practices cause ISPs to paint themselves into a
corner with promises of features and closed solutions, is this
advantageous to YOUR business? Do you want to choose a dialup solution
based largly upon which features the vendor's radius solution supports?
I'd rather not.
I believe that a unix Radius server that is developed by the community at
large and accepts source contributions from the various companys would be
a much better way to get a GOOD radius server. Now, I agree that
supporing software that wasn't developed and maintained inhouse is a
rather sketchy issue, but everyone wouldn't have to reinvent the wheel
every six months to add new features.
> I bet you are still running DOS because mircosoft makes great code the
> first time.
> (or is that cpm :)
TOPS20 or RSTS/E bitch.
*grin*
Anyhow, I'll try to be less vocal and take my angst and lack of sleep
somewhere else. Maybe I should go help abuse Flemming some more. (or
something).
Have a good one.
| Matthew N. Dodd | winter@jurai.net | http://www.jurai.net/~winter |
| Technical Manager | mdodd@intersurf.net | http://www.intersurf.net |
| InterSurf Online | "Welcome to the net Sir, would you like a handbasket?"|