MPE Folks:

Gary sure is right. We spoke with the response center this week and we
were told late spring would be the earliest that the 32 bit (MB Foster
Lite) odbc driver would be available. When we inquired about a beta
program we were told that it is much to early to even consider such a
program!

Isn't it nice that HP was able to announce at interex that the driver
was on the way so that they could save face and avoid bloodshed during
the show? Clearly the course at HP is to continue to milk the HP 3000
cash cow while scaling back the resources devoted to the platform. This
is a classic business case of a mature product on the declining side of
the time/adoption curve.  HP might have chosen to refresh the platform
with new blood, but, alas, the path seems to be set. At least we're not
bitter about it! ;-)

As developers we have an immediate need for this driver. We are now
evaluating the idea of purchasing the full MB Foster product for each
install we do. More telling, though, we are also evaluating abandoning
software development for the 3000 in favor of NT and SQL Server. Loyalty
is nice, and all, but we need to actually have a product to sell.

Any HP apologizers care to comment?


John Painter
Computer Solutions, Inc.
http://home.navisoft.com/csi6000



In article <[log in to unmask]>,
[log in to unmask] says...
>
>Unfortunately, we are now being told that it will be sometime 1st
quarter
>of '97, at the earliest.  Which is certainly different than the
information
>that was given at HP World.
>
>Gary Dietz
>
>>>> Cognos <[log in to unmask]> 10/29/96 09:51am >>>
>Who have news about the ODBC/Allbase 32 bits disponibility and
dowloading??