Folks,

My 2 pence (cents!?) worth..... and given that I teach both MPE and
Unix...... (Unix for some 15 years and MPE for almost 12)

I figure that I could train a teenager (late teens) to become a competent
(apart from applications) MPE admin within a few weeks (lets say four
weeks) and they would be able to manage all the major components
including SYSGEN, NMMGR, spooling and general day to day
operations etc etc. I would just like to add that this would be BASIC
admin!

To achieve the same level of competence with Unix would take months
rather than weeks.

Needless to say that to become a good admin, on either OS, takes
time and experience and the time factor CANNOT be avoided! BUT
at least to gain the basic knowledge and be able to perform an admin
role will be considerably shorter with MPE when compared to Unix.

Both OS's have their advantages and disadvantages in terms of admin
but my favorite OS, without any shadow of doubt, has got to be MPE!
Simple and straightforward! I will not even mention NT/2000 :-)

The MPE community has also been mentioned and I would agree that
it is GREAT. People go out of their way to provide help and assistance
to those 'newbies' who have not been using it long and this has been
happening for the last 25 years and more and there is little chance that it
will decline.

I would not like to say that MPE is the Greatest OS in the world but has
got to be, in my opinion, pretty close. It is certainly underated (to say
the
least!) and a HUGE number of organisations would do well to look long
and hard at MPE before even considering Unix or NT. I also believe it to
be shame that HP cannot see this for themselves. I know that there is still
a band of dedicated MPE'ers in HP but...... It would be even nicer if HP
could afford the time to actually show customers what they are missing!?

Well, I have had my say and will now sit back and dream of the day when
MPE is treated, and generating the same sort of income for HP, the way that
it was 10 years ago......

Ahhhhhhh. Yes, I know - DREAM ON! But it is a nice dream!

TTFN
Ian
_____________________________________
Ian Sargent
Education & Training Consulting Services Ltd
Tel/Fax: 01344 644579
Mobile:   07970 847197
www:      http://www.etcs.co.uk
_____________________________________

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