Michael writes:

> No.  No.  No.  If MPE had been able to compete fairly to begin with, it
>  would have flourished.  If it is chained to HP it will die.  Why has UNIX
>  gained so much market share over the years?  Why did Apple, with probably
>  the best operating system ever written for a personal computer (for ease of
>  use and reliability) not beat Microsoft?  Why has Linux grown so rapidly?
>  Why have proprietary operating systems all but died out?  This should be
>  clear.  Times have changed.  Hardware is a commodity, and unless you have
>  better reliability or price, you lose.  People don't buy a particular
>  vendor's hardware because of the software it will run.  Software is to be
>  free to move from one hardware vendor to another, or nobody is going to
>  write it.  If you control MPE, it will die a slow death.  Open it up, it
>  will eventually win.  I believe that installations using MPE would actually
>  increase in number.  It is a very reliable, stable, efficient, powerful
>  operating system.  But, if it is controlled too much, it will die.  Maybe
>  slowly, but it will die, never the less.
>
>  HP should receive royalties for MPE.  Every copy.  I won't deny that.
>  They've earned it.  But the limits HP is putting on MPE will cause software
>  purveyors to go elsewhere.  Many have already jumped ship.  Without fresh
>  offerings in software, any platform will die.  HP is not going to kill MPE
>  this way... it will cut its arms off and let it bleed to death on its own,
>  saying that it would have died anyway.  If 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.
>
>  (Not necessarily the opinion of my employer).

While Michael's comments may not reflect those of his employer, they fairly
well reflect mine, although I could easily make the case the for HP being
paid no royalty at all in a few years, if even that.

Until and unless HP makes MPE available as binaries available to everyone at
virtually no cost -- and the source is released to three to five caretaking
organizations so that it can be improved over time -- as things stand now,
MPE has no real future.

Wirt Atmar