Terry Simpkins wrote earlier this morning:

=======================================

> I try not to spread rumors but this one came to me from a usually
>  reliable source.
>
>  He claims to have gotten it from two reliable sources that are totally
>  unrelated, one inside HP and
>  the other a large user.  (I know, "a friend of a friend.......)
>
>  Anyway the rumor is that Carly will announce next Wed (Nov 14), the
>  discontinuance of the HP3000 line.
>  Production to cease in 2002.
>  Support to end in 2007.
>  Anyone else hear this?  I am inclined to think NOT, since no one has
>  posted anything about it yet, and this
>  group is not known for sitting on things. =20
>  I find this very hard to accept, and I really don't want to start a big
>  hubbub (is that a word?), but like I said, the
>  source is usually pretty reliable.  Of course he could be playing me for
>  the biggest dupe of month.

======================================

This afternoon I received the following from a person within CSY:

=======================================

Hi Wirt,
Sending this to you because you are someone people trust and listen to. I
don't want to send it to the list myself, seeing as the "official" public
announcement will come Wednesday. I'd like to just remain "anonymous."

At this very moment, I'm on a conference call with CSY and the rest of the
HP3000 world internal to HP.

The rumor is true, as well as the "confirmation" this morning by whoever that
was that heard it from someone inside HP. Everyone seemed to shut him down
because they don't know who he is. That's why I'm letting you know. If you
were to say you heard it from inside HP, people will believe.

10/31/2003 - End of sales
12/31/2006 - End of support.

In the meantime, there'll be full support, both software- and hardware-wise.
A- and N-Class are the last incarnation of the HP3000.
There will be discounts and promotions to transition to another HP platform -
HP9000, NT, Linux, etc.

There's a lot more information regarding the transitioning over the next few
years.....they'll announce a website Wednesday also.

=======================================

If you're wondering how I feel, it's nothing less than undescribable sadness.
This coming announcement represents the beginning of the end of our 26-year
association with HP. There's nothing that HP does now that any further
interests me. HP-UX will compete at the enterprise level for a few more
years, but it has no future against Linux. If MPE survives, it will be
outside of HP, maintained and improved by a newly organized company. But if
it does survive in this mode, it may be the best thing that could have
possibly occurred for MPE.

HP has slowly been killing MPE for years now, one by charging much higher
prices for its hardware than equivalent operating systems must pay and two,
by not allowing it to be aggressively advertised for its extraordinary
qualities of simplicity, reliability and robustness vis-a-vis any of the
unixes.

If the MPE cause is taken over by an organization external to HP, neither of
those conditions would remain barriers. Hardware prices could drop to 20% of
their current levels, at absolutely no cost in increased unreliability, and
MPE could be opened up to run on a wide variety of hardware platforms.

I don't believe this is necessarily the end. In fact, it may be just the
opposite. In some ways, this may be the best thing that could happen to MPE.
While HP, beginning next Wednesday, will undoubtedly promote all sorts of
propositions to "migrate" you to other HP-supported platforms, away from MPE,
for most MPE users, there really is no such thing as a practical migration
process. It will simply be a complete restart. The best thing that could
happen for all of us would be to migrate MPE somewhere else, in a completely
open fashion, so that you could buy your hardware from Dell or IBM or whoever
you cared to purchase it from, at commodity prices, and have you run your
business uninterrupted without having to engage in an extremely expensive and
disruptive "migration" process.

There may actually be a brighter future for MPE in the coming days than if HP
had continued to support the operating system and returned the deep sense of
faith and loyalty that the customers have given HP.

Wirt Atmar

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