James writes in reply to Larry:

> Yes.. I did notice that, One if the reason I mentioned it. For the 3000's
> sake, I really don't think we should ban the from short Advertisements..
> After all they are part of the 3000's community as well.

Hell's bells, the vendors ARE (and WERE) the HP3000 community. If it weren't
the actions of a number of the vendors during the worst times of the HP3000,
I'm absolutely sure that there wouldn't be an HP3000 now. These are the same
people who wrote letters, gave talks, crusaded across the country, and
repeatedly pestered Lew Platt and others until there was at least a glimmer
of a turnaround in HP's corporate thinking.

And they did this at their own expense, knowing full well that no individual
user could possibly muster the resources to make as much noise, in as
sustained a manner, as they could. And they remember full well that in the
early days, the response from HP was a long series of dismissive statements
saying that they're just a bunch of vendors who are trying to save their own
asses.

Al's comment that ".....the abuse of this forum by 'vendors' seems to have no
end in sight!" is as foolish as it is shortsighted. Firstly, the "abuse"
seems almost non-existent to me. Secondly, it is in my best interests, and
yours too, to know what the development community (other than HP) are doing.
The announcement of a Java-based terminal is an important bit of news to the
HP3000. It brings another option to your choices as to how you approach your
job and tasks.

Rather than discourage such announcements, they should be very much
encouraged, for all the reasons that James previously mentioned. Without
these continuing developments, there won't be an HP3000 in anyone's future.
Things are far better than they were just 10 years ago, but they are by no
means secure. An active, healthy product development community is absolutely
essential to the HP3000's future.

Wirt Atmar