Ron Seybold wrote:
>
> Hello Friends:
>
> Thought this list might make some use of this information the next time its
> members have to defend the HP 3000 against Unix systems strictly on the
> basis of what's popular:
>
 
Uh-hum,
 
  Don't forget MPE-POSIX looks and feels very much like UNIX.  Don't forget
most new MPE OS features are coming by way of "UX to POSIX" ports.  Many
"binaries" copied strictly from HP-UX _will_ run on the 3000.  The MPE-POSIX
Korn shell looks darn close to my SUN Korn shell.
 
  Given the duality of the MPE 5.5 OS, it is important to look at UNIX in
relationship to the 3000.  Why?  Simply because that is where the new
applications are coming from.
 
   I'm only guessing here given what I've seen MPE 5.5 doing (telnet and
network printing) and a few other vendors, but how many new applications for
MPE are written as POSIX compliant .vs. MPE only now?
 
  So, the real issues here (to me) seem more of proprietary OS's, the VARs
relationships to the proprietary machine and niche markets "to be defended
against open competitive Unix systems" - more so than MPE to be defended
against Unix on technical merits.
 
  This is not negative or a slam, if you buy MPE proprietary.  It just isn't
the trend or "popular", as Ron has pointed out.  By definition, niche
markets are not the popular trend markets.  What makes the 3000 unique in
this particular proprietary market is that the 3000 has a big brother or big
sister (if you will) that _is_ popular.  This relationship supplies most of
the 3000 hardware as "equal hand me downs" to keep the 3000 hardware line
"state-of-the-art" and also adding to HP profit lines.
 
  If the HP 3000 to 9000 relationship ever gets severed, the quality of
hardware to the MPE market would nose dive and I doubt MPE could survive on
its own (or it would look radically different than today).  So, yes, UNIX is
important to the HP 3000 more than most people think because of the unique
HP-UX and MPE relationship within HP.
 
  But if MPE Posix code is the "trend" for vendor investment protection, the
next logical question posed by any IT manager is simply:  If I'm now buying
a POSIX port as an application for MPE, why not just pick the UNIX version
instead of MPE?
 
  I've seen this Question pop-up on this list more and more lately.  What is
the answer?
----------------------------------------------------------------
Eric J. Schubert                    Senior Data Base Analyst
Office of Information Technologies  Univ of Notre Dame, IN USA
(219) 631-7306                      http://www.nd.edu/~eschuber
 
"No, we don't have hunchbacks here - only quarterbacks".