As many of us know, at Interex '94 HP announced that they would begin
bundling ARPA services with the 5.0 push of MPE/iX.  Remembering that the
IMAGE/SQL bundling had an increased my software supports costs I quite
reasonably supposed that the ARPA bundling might also have a similar impact
on software support costs.
 
However the rumors I've heard in the last couple of months seem to suggest
that there will be NO additional support cost associated with the ARPA
bundling; if true, then what a pleasant surprise!  But IF true, that raises
a question for those of us who have purchased the ARPA products and are
currently paying software support for them: When do we get to STOP paying
support?
 
I figure we'll get our reprieve either on our support contract renewal date
or when the 5.0 push ships; although I think it's more likely that it will
be the contract renewal date.  That means that (assuming 5.0 pushes out on
schedule) I'll wind up still paying support fees for the ARPA products for a
few while other users (after all, I don't intend to be the first on the
block to put up 5.0) are getting both the product and support for free.
 
I'm not real wild about this; I think the solution that's fair to those of
us who have been purchasing these products and paying the support fees is
for HP to drop those fees from our support contracts the day that the 5.0
push ships.
 
I know, not bloodly likely.
 
 -- Evan
 
These opinions expressed here are DEFINITELY my own.