I'm in favor of whatever will make the greatest impact. And I am afraid that
if we let HPWorld slip by without doing anything, we lose our best
opportunity until next year.

I believe Winston Prather will do everything he says, but I do not think
that will be enough. Nor do I believe holding the Sword over Damocles is
anything but thinly disguised blackmail.

What we need to do is not just get HP management to mention the HP e3000 and
MPE and IMAGE/SQL but to rethink the way they view the system.

The reason why MPE was not mentioned in the now infamous Ann Livermore quote
"we have a multiple-operating system strategy:  HP-UX, Linux and NT." is
because HP management does not view MPE as a general purpose computer
operating system. Rather, they see it as a niche player. I do not know how
Winston Prather feels about this (though I would love to see him comment),
but I do know that Harry Sterling bought into this notion.

Now, we can easily argue that none of the OSs is truly "general purpose",
some, especially NT, are less so than others. But it does not matter what we
think. It matters what Carly Fiorino, Ann Livermore, etc. think about the HP
e3000. It is this niche player mindset that must be changed. Because it
becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.

So, the question becomes, how do we best start a dialogue with HP
management? I think it is to grab their attention in the most public way
possible. If that means a little embarrassment, so be it.

And then, once we have their attention, we do our best to convince them that
the only thing stopping the HP e3000 from being the host system of choice
for the next SAP, is HP management. If we cannot do that, as both customers
and in many cases stockholders, then we may as well hang up our MPE pocket
guides and start taking MCSE classes.

John Burke