Mr. Thibodeau,

I share Alfredo Rego's comment, "Where have you been hiding?  Or has HP just
asked you to conduct yet another survey trying to 'understand' the hp3000?"

Many of the people involved in the World Wide Wake started with the HP 3000
and MPE and IMAGE 20-25 years ago, a time when it was considered a bad
career move to deal with any vendor except IBM. This was a time when the
operative IT phrase was "no one ever got fired for going with IBM". But we
KNEW that the HP 3000 with the MPE OS and the IMAGE DBMS was better,
especially for SMBs, than anything IBM had to offer.

Because we were going against the wind, a self-supporting community grew up
with its common interest being the HP 3000 and how to get the most out of
it. For many of us, the HP 3000 totally shaped our IT careers. Not only did
we have to fight against the notion in the business community that
Hewlett-Packard did not know anything about IT, but in later years we had to
fight against Hewlett-Packard itself as it became increasingly entranced
with the latest IT magic bullet and stopped investing in its tried and true
technology.

For many of us, the HP 3000 and this community, a community unlike anything
else in the IT industry, has been family. So, yes, the EOS for the HP 3000
is an emotional event. I would have thought that you would understand this
by now.

Respectfully,
John Burke

****************************************************************
* John Burke MA, MS, CDP     Email:  [log in to unmask] *
* Burke Consulting           Phone:  (916) 987-0265            *
* 7224 Pine Grove Way        Cell:   (916) 337-0425            *
* Folsom, CA 95630           Web:    www.burke-consulting.com  *
****************************************************************

* To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, *
* etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *