Group,

Since HP announced HPUX to run on PA-RISC, I have always said that hardware
and Operating System should be unbundled.  It has been possible for years.

Under that scenario, you buy the box and the peripherals, then purchase the
OS.  MPE would have cost more than HPUX. Then the OS folks would receive
their money, the hardware folks their money.  When a new OS came along
(LINUX) then it could have been put on the same box.  The marketplace would
have accepted it.  MPE complete OS could be compared to HPUX with 3rd party
software.  It was doable for years.

Had it been done, then MPE OS group could be spun off.  MPE OS group could
have investigated other hardware platforms such as Intel.  It was HP's choice
to bundle and that bundling probably causes the situation we have today.

As far as my clients are concerned, the lack of movement from HP about
OPENMPE has been the deciding blow.  It is no option.  My clients think that
it was a reasonable request and the silence is deafening.

How are they going to move forward?  They are hiring an independent third
party (one of the Big 5 firms) to do an evaluation.  This party is told up
front that they have no opportunity to bid on any recommendations.  We are
interested in only independent thought and recommendations.  We want to
eliminate as many preconceived notions and prejudices as possible.  What is
important to the client?  A stable environment, One number to call for
hardware and OS issues, an active users group, batch processes, reliable
backup and restore and recovery, a history of very little downtime.  A
commitment to an OS much longer than 20 years.  The client fully expects
their application to run for 25+ years.  By the way the client has been a
very good HP client buying a new machine every 3-4 years for the past 22
years.  They also fully expect to spend over $1million to do anything.


Terry Warns

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