On 1 Oct 2002 at 11:21, [log in to unmask] wrote:

> No.  No.  No.  If MPE had been able to compete fairly to begin with,
> it would have flourished.

That's water under the bridge. The past can't be changed.

> It is a very reliable, stable, efficient, powerful
> operating system.

And there are other operating systems that now approach that, too.
This argument no longer wins by itself.

> But the limits HP is putting on MPE will cause
> software purveyors to go elsewhere.

No. If the dollars don't justify the investement, the vendors will
not support/will drop support of MPE. Why did MPE get dropped as a
supported platform for Oracle and SAP? Because the ROI didn't justify
the continued investment. Do you think that will happen now with all
the publicity we've seen about the EOL of MPE?

As strong an advocate of MPE as I am, I see no way that it can grow
beyond where it is today. That doesn't mean that there won't be a
group of users that find utility with it and can continue to use it.
It will just be a diminishing group. Nevertheless, I and others are
around to try to support that group. Hence, we have OpenMPE.

> Without fresh offerings in software, any platform will die.

Absolutely. That's why I, Lars and "The Other Mark" (B) have busted
our butts porting stuff to MPE and adding framework to make it easier
to bring software to MPE. Even so, we had world class software
running on MPE at one time. It still didn't help the platform
survive.

> a reasonable royalty for every copy were granted HP, they could have
> an increasing revenue stream from MPE, without having to support it in
> any way.  Not a bad way to end a product line, IMO.

And this may yet come to pass. We've gotten to the point where these
things are on the table and are being discussed. There is a glimmer
of light down the road, and it will be a hard road to get there.

But, it will never be able to compete with the likes of Linux.
--
Mark Klein
http://www.dis.com
PGP Key Available