Hello Friends:

Thanks to Glenn Cole for unearthing the NewSpeak that went on at the
latest Linux World conference. When the the chief scientist of HP
says the HP 3000 community has been successfully moved to open
systems and Unix, I wonder if that scientist's retirement isn't
overdue.

A dedicated scientist would stick to the facts. I guess Joel Birnbaum
has forgotten his own role in the late 1980s in getting the MPE XL
operating system stable. In a room full of journalists in Detroit in
1986, he said the problems in getting those RISC-based 3000s stable
enough to release "will yield to engineering discipline." Apparently
marketing discipline has taken hold at HP, with a grip strong enough
to revise history so its MPE users are now part of HP's Unix fold.
Engineers who have labored to make MPE more reliable and manageable
than Unix at HP can educate Birnbaum on the distinct differences
between the environments, I'm sure.

On the upside, now when I read every favorable comment on Unix from
HP, I can simply substitute "MPE" and know I'm in step with HP's
chief scientist.

The best news: Now that Nick Earle has left his marketing post, HP
will never let Birnbaum give that speech again. Right?


>The proper context is really the entire 2nd and 3rd paragraphs
>under "Benefits of the Information Utility."
>
>That said...:
>
>    In the early 80s, HP gambled on the emerging trend that
>    open systems would create the freedom of choice that most
>    of our customers said they wanted.
>
>(Actually, as I recall, the above is true.)
>
>    ...
>    We made the same UNIX choice for our HP 3000 distributed
>    commercial machines which ran a very successful, proprietary
>    operating system called MPE. Providing a smooth transition
>    to UNIX was not only a business risk, it was a very difficult
>    technical challenge, as we simultaneously changed the
>    processor architecture, compilers, I/O and the user interface.
>
>(Right on all accounts, but...)
>
>    ...
>    As you know, we guessed right about where our customers
>    wanted to go....
>
>(Oops!)
>
>The full article is quite lengthy (I've read only part of it),
>and can be found at
>
>    http://www.hp.com/ghp/Highlights/24Aug00.html
--

Ron Seybold, Editor In Chief
The 3000 NewsWire
Independent Information to Maximize Your HP 3000
http://www.3000newswire.com
512.331.0075 -- [log in to unmask]