Mark Dyer wrote:
"DLT is an Industry standard, not an IBM standard.
 Because it is an Industry standard, competition is improving DLT
 capabilities."

Quite so.  At any given time, some technologies will be having a tough time,
but later will shine compared to others; so it's quite variable.
Fred talks of 3570 technology as "very slick", which it is by design; but
recent horror stories we've seen on the List about bad experiences some
customers are having with them might make other customers wonder.
Again, there are bad manufacturing batches of everything, and sometimes
inferior customer engineers who will either never figure out how to fix a
problem or show the initiative to do what it takes to get it resolved
quickly, which aggravates a product's reputation.

Choosing a technology can be a tough decision, and as in buying a car, you may
get unlucky with the particular unit you do get.
     Richard Sims, BU