I found this posting searching through Google from an Adager web page...
Hindsight is 20-20

Hewlett-Packard's golden opportunity


Hewlett-Packard has a golden opportunity to continue providing a healthy
alternative to this dietary madness—if Hewlett-Packard chooses to do so.

Mr. Rich Sevcik, General Manager of Hewlett-Packard's Systems and Servers
Group, was very excited in New Orleans when he introduced SQL for
IMAGE—recently renamed to IMAGE/SQL—and when he spoke about Posix for MPE.
He was very clear in stressing that MPE/iX (Multi Programming Executive with
integrated Posix) is the latest in a series of forward-compatible operating
systems for the HP3000 line of computers. All programs written for MPE XL
will run without change under MPE/iX, and you can continue to use MPE XL
documentation. His comments, during a plenary session, were greeted by a
standing ovation. Mr. Sevcik was obviously turning the heat up for the
previously-neglected MPE oven.

Unfortunately, Hewlett-Packard's chief baker, Mr. Wim Roelandts, publicly
contradicted Mr. Sevcik's well-received announcement. Mr. Roelandts stated
(in Computerworld, November 2, 1992) that HP would like to get out of the
health-food business: "For our Unix strategy, the No. 1 objective is to
grow. For our MPE strategy, our No. 1 objective is to maintain the installed
base." Mr. Roelandts obviously wants to maintain the Unix oven well stoked
while starving the supply lines to the MPE oven. Meanwhile, the MPE
customers who have loyally provided the dough for Hewlett-Packard are made
to feel as if they are not part of the upper crust. Pity.



Unix is a good thing, but it cannot be all things to all people


Nobody is denying that Unix, as an operating system, is a good thing for
some people. But Unix cannot be all things to all people. The key is
interoperability: there should be different operating systems, each suited
for a particular purpose, and they should be able to exchange information
easily, reliably and economically. Posix for the HP3000, included with
MPE/iX, is a good step in the right direction. Mr. Roelandts himself says so
in the Computerworld article: "Today, you can take Unix software and port it
to MPE with the same degree of difficulty as if you were porting it to
another version of Unix."

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