Roy Buzdor wrote:
[snip]
> I lost some more when they came out with the same hardware in two
> different lines (3000 / 9000) of which the 3000 was a lot more
>expensive, simply because the 9000> (unix) users were not locked
>in to HP.
> I seemed to remember that they kept telling us that there
> was a lot of difference between the two...it just
> looked like they were the same.  Now, it seems
> that someone has proven that they are the same,
> by (allegedly) tweaking the machines so that the
> 9000 will run MPE/iX...and by changing that
> secret number that limits the number of users
> who can run on the 3000.

Yes, I have to agree that fleecing the HP3000 community for a
box with a different badge but the same hardware as the HP9000
sounds rather unethical if it is clever marketing. The fact that
some companies have found it so easy to pass the HP9000 off as an
HP3000 begs the question :

Why can't HP sell the same hardware at the same price regardless
of the badge? Yes, I know, all the marketing folks will go on about
how competitive the Unix/NT market is as compared to the HP3000
market but a box is a box. If HP really want the HP3000 to continue to
succceed they should seriously look at aligning the prices for HP9000
and HP3000.

Just my $0.02.

Cheers,

John Dunlop

E-mail : [log in to unmask]
Web : http://www.hp3000links.com
"All your HP3000 resources on the Net"
Mirror: http://homepages.tcp.co.uk/~jdunlop