<OpenMPE Board's message snipped>
> HP needs to make the licensing decision regarding MPE/iX and
> announce it by the second half of this year!

Or what?  Or HP will have to live without money they wouldn't have
gotten anyway?  Or HP will have to live with the ire of its formerly
loyal 3000 base (oops, it already does)?  I think it’s time to practice
a little acceptance.  While I think the effort to provide MPE customers
with the ability to stay on a platform they know and love is laudable,
it has always been a losing proposition.

- HP has mentioned a few times that third-party code resides in the MPE
OS. HP will not fork over the money to get that licensed for an almost-
free distribution (if that could even happen). Nor, I think, will HP
take the time and effort needed to determine which third-party
subsystems must be replaced and to determine how to do it. They could
let someone else do it, but it costs them little not to do it at all.

- Most homesteaders are not HP "customers". We were told long ago
(http://tinyurl.com/3ggcz [tinyURL]) that "customers" upgrade hardware
and software far more frequently than many MPE shops do. "Customers"
provide their HP masters with a continuing stream of revenue.  Your
loyalty isn't adding to HP's balance sheet.  That's as far as HP looks
these days.

- Providing an open solution is counter-productive for HP. Do you think
that HP really wants folks to have the alternative to stay on the 3000?
HP’s "customers" are the businesses that the company is focused on and
most of them have the money to migrate (using HP services and hardware,
of course).  The “customers” feel good because of HP’s expertise with
their 3000 platforms and HP feels good because the checks clear.  I
wonder how much more revenue and how much less cost HP is generating by
migrating the folks who can afford it (with the help of their "Platinum
Partners") and watching those who can't grouse and threaten to move
their "business" somewhere else. Moving your business to another vendor
is only a threat when your current vendor considers you a valuable asset.

When it comes to extending the life of MPE (either through support or
OpenMPE), HP has previously stated its concern in the following
terms: “We don't want to send a mixed message that will put customers
into a bind.”  I expect the reality is more like, “We don’t want to
send ‘customers’ a mixed message—so that as many ‘customers’ as possible
pay us for their migration.”

If HP wanted to help OpenMPE and increase goodwill, you would hear
constant messages about the status of the project, how hard they were
working on it, and updates from the OpenMPE board about what a pleasure
it was to work with their HP partners.  In a situation like this, there
is no charity without publicity.  Yet, we hear little or nothing from
HP, and that which we hear screams its insincerity.  Goodwill seems to
be the only motivator for the “opening” of MPE, yet we see HP doing
nothing to ensure that the “will” of this community is “good”.

I wish that those folks who want or need to keep running their 3000s
could get OpenMPE.  Unfortunately, the only thing that seems to be open
at HP is the door into HP Services.  HP's corporate logo should long
since have changed from "HP - Invent" to "HP - Show Me the Money".  Does
that mean that you shouldn't "homestead" on your HP 3000?  No.  Just
don't expect HP to help you do it.

Just one guy's opinion

Adam

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