Duane Percox said that Lew Platt reported
 
>"in the end there will be two operating systems - UNIX and Windows NT"
 
More than a few years back, a then-young HP Professional reported in an
article from its editorial director there would be but three survivors in
the operating system "wars." You'd be left with MVS for your mainframes,
VMS for your DEC systems and Unix for all else. Not surprisingly, the
publishing company printing those words had publications covering all three
of those environments. Windows NT was but a gleam in David Cutler's eye at
Digital at the time. Given the rise of their new ENT, an NT mag at that
publishing company, I wonder if they might like to revise their
prediction...
 
I'd say the CEO of any company, if forecasting what is likely to survive,
is guessing as much as any of us in the dynamic world of computers. Just as
HP Pro figured Digital would be a winner in the middle 90s, people are wont
to forecast that NT will be "winning" in the years to come. It's the kind
of thing journalists love to report, and CEOs should be loathe to say. HP's
business acumen is broad enough to see that anything they're selling at a
profit is a winner. That's MPE/iX, for thousands of companies including
those at the top of the world's business community.
 
HP itself is one of those companies. In fact, HP recently unplugged its own
MVS systems to replace part of their duties with three top-of-the-line HP
3000s. What do they entrust to the 3000s at HP HQ? Nothing less than the
order fulfillment for all $40 billion of its business transactions this
coming year. It was the biggest application running in HP's corporate IS
shop, and the MPE/iX systems got the assignment. See our July issue of the
NewsWire for more details. (If you haven't already, you can sign for a free
trial subscription in the US and Canada at
http://www.3000newswire.com/newswire) Lew might be glad to learn that his
own paycheck now rolls off an HP 3000 system, too.
 
Just like there will always be room for new ideas with promise, there will
always be demand for proven ideas which generate profits for customers and
the companies which make them. The idea of horse races, with clear winners
and losers, is a story often chased by people who look to popularity,
rather than productivity, to demonstrate value. The HP 3000 needs
applications, to be certain. But the platform demonstates value for its
maker as well as its consumers. It's in no danger of falling off HP's
product list while it continues to generate success for the world's
business community.
 
Ron Seybold, Editor In Chief
The 3000 News/Wire
Independent Information to Maximize Your HP3000
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