"Un-describable sadness" --- yes.......I agree. Perhaps the
MPE communities-users could "let their voices be heard"
regarding such.......and hopefully triple the magnitude of
the days when HP wanted to "un-bundle Turbo-Image"??
Hmmmmmm.

Thank you for the insight. (yes it does seem that HP has
been killing MPE for several years)

--- Wirt Atmar <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Terry Simpkins wrote earlier this morning:
>
> =======================================
>
> > I try not to spread rumors but this one came to me from
> a usually
> >  reliable source.
> >
> >  He claims to have gotten it from two reliable sources
> that are totally
> >  unrelated, one inside HP and
> >  the other a large user.  (I know, "a friend of a
> friend.......)
> >
> >  Anyway the rumor is that Carly will announce next Wed
> (Nov 14), the
> >  discontinuance of the HP3000 line.
> >  Production to cease in 2002.
> >  Support to end in 2007.
> >  Anyone else hear this?  I am inclined to think NOT,
> since no one has
> >  posted anything about it yet, and this
> >  group is not known for sitting on things. =20
> >  I find this very hard to accept, and I really don't
> want to start a big
> >  hubbub (is that a word?), but like I said, the
> >  source is usually pretty reliable.  Of course he could
> be playing me for
> >  the biggest dupe of month.
>
> ======================================
>
> This afternoon I received the following from a person
> within CSY:
>
> =======================================
>
> Hi Wirt,
> Sending this to you because you are someone people trust
> and listen to. I
> don't want to send it to the list myself, seeing as the
> "official" public
> announcement will come Wednesday. I'd like to just remain
> "anonymous."
>
> At this very moment, I'm on a conference call with CSY
> and the rest of the
> HP3000 world internal to HP.
>
> The rumor is true, as well as the "confirmation" this
> morning by whoever that
> was that heard it from someone inside HP. Everyone seemed
> to shut him down
> because they don't know who he is. That's why I'm letting
> you know. If you
> were to say you heard it from inside HP, people will
> believe.
>
> 10/31/2003 - End of sales
> 12/31/2006 - End of support.
>
> In the meantime, there'll be full support, both software-
> and hardware-wise.
> A- and N-Class are the last incarnation of the HP3000.
> There will be discounts and promotions to transition to
> another HP platform -
> HP9000, NT, Linux, etc.
>
> There's a lot more information regarding the
> transitioning over the next few
> years.....they'll announce a website Wednesday also.
>
> =======================================
>
> If you're wondering how I feel, it's nothing less than
> undescribable sadness.
> This coming announcement represents the beginning of the
> end of our 26-year
> association with HP. There's nothing that HP does now
> that any further
> interests me. HP-UX will compete at the enterprise level
> for a few more
> years, but it has no future against Linux. If MPE
> survives, it will be
> outside of HP, maintained and improved by a newly
> organized company. But if
> it does survive in this mode, it may be the best thing
> that could have
> possibly occurred for MPE.
>
> HP has slowly been killing MPE for years now, one by
> charging much higher
> prices for its hardware than equivalent operating systems
> must pay and two,
> by not allowing it to be aggressively advertised for its
> extraordinary
> qualities of simplicity, reliability and robustness
> vis-a-vis any of the
> unixes.
>
> If the MPE cause is taken over by an organization
> external to HP, neither of
> those conditions would remain barriers. Hardware prices
> could drop to 20% of
> their current levels, at absolutely no cost in increased
> unreliability, and
> MPE could be opened up to run on a wide variety of
> hardware platforms.
>
> I don't believe this is necessarily the end. In fact, it
> may be just the
> opposite. In some ways, this may be the best thing that
> could happen to MPE.
> While HP, beginning next Wednesday, will undoubtedly
> promote all sorts of
> propositions to "migrate" you to other HP-supported
> platforms, away from MPE,
> for most MPE users, there really is no such thing as a
> practical migration
> process. It will simply be a complete restart. The best
> thing that could
> happen for all of us would be to migrate MPE somewhere
> else, in a completely
> open fashion, so that you could buy your hardware from
> Dell or IBM or whoever
> you cared to purchase it from, at commodity prices, and
> have you run your
> business uninterrupted without having to engage in an
> extremely expensive and
> disruptive "migration" process.
>
> There may actually be a brighter future for MPE in the
> coming days than if HP
> had continued to support the operating system and
> returned the deep sense of
> faith and loyalty that the customers have given HP.
>
> Wirt Atmar
>
> * To join/leave the list, search archives, change list
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=====
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