Unfortunately I have to disagree with HP "dumping" MPE...

I see it as never happening. I think we have been lulled into a pipe dream
for an emulator for future users. Hp will not give it up

My opinion only
> Hi Alfredo !
>
> So you wrote :
>
> > Funny you should mention this.  I just spoke with a friend
> > who works at a major university (as in "billions of dollars
> > of endowment", lots of Nobel Prize winners, and so on).
> >
> > Their hp3000 machines ARE their endowment cash registers and
> > they do a first-rate job.  The university certainly uses
> > all kinds of OTHER machines for all kinds of OTHER purposes.
> > But what do they use for what really counts (i.e., for the
> > absolutely most reliable gatekeeping in terms of their MONEY)?
> > The hp3000 running MPE-IMAGE, of course :-)
>
> This is certainly today's reliable machine for a could-not-be-more strategic
> need, the one driving the money flow. But what about tomorrow ?
>
> > And this is just today's conversation.  I get exactly the
> > same "feedback" (to use HP's "management" term :-) all the
> > time.
>
> Most of my customers still on MPE (number dwindling on a weekly basis - sigh
> ...) say exactly the same. The Wind@ws boxes merely sputter along, whereas

> the MPE server gently purrs, with hardly a hiccup, and Un!x is somewhere
> in-between.
>
>
> > Many hp3000 machines are not on maintenance.
>
> Mine are not, and they have never been. I've stockpiled enough parts to get
> them running well into this century. As far as software maintenance is
> concerned, I rely on the DSPP for software updates and on my friends at
> HP3000-L and other lists when I'm in trouble. The cynical guy deep inside me
> says the HP Response Center people should do the same, for a better
> first-line support quality.
>
> > Many are, but
> > not on HP's maintenance plans.  Still many others are under
> > HP maintenance.  The fact that (most of them) keep on
> > trucking under circumstances that would drive lesser machines
> > to the dumpster IS an extremely powerful statement.
>
> Unfortunately, it's not. The 3000's inherent reliability is so high it's
> very hard to get an improvement. When you've reached the Everest of
> reliability, it's hard to get anywhere higher, isn't it ?
>

> Now, HP has dumped the 3000. So what's the relevance of an HP reliability ?
> Nil. Sorry to be blunt but, short of an eleventh-hour miracle that no one
> sees coming, MPE is dead for HP's purposes. For an MPE future, count on
> OpenMPE, Inc. rather than on HP. When it comes,the inherent hardware
> reliability of an emulator will be that of the underlying hardware/OS
> platform, most likely Intel + Linux.
>
> > Be it as it may:
> >
> > This EXTREMELY POWERFUL statement could be used for an
> > unbelievable marketing campaign by HP.  Unfortunately, the
> > business schools that HP marketing folks attended seem to
> > have drilled -- unbelievably effectively and powerfully --
> > the belief that this statement is "bad".
>
> These marketing geeks are indeed quite smart. They've convinced THE WHOLE
> WORLD that they need new bells and whistles every now and then. Think of
> this : would you do, these days, without multiple windows ? without sound ?
> without color ? without a mouse ? Well, thats' where MPE is, in terms of

> human interface. Where a mid-tech product like, say, a car experiences a
> complete technological revolution every 2 decades or so, a hi-tech product
> like a computer experiences the same overhaul every, say, 3 years. Because
> we don't want to do without our neighbor's bells and whistles. Because we've
> been told by the marketing geeks that it's good. Because, ultimately, it
> keeps a whole industry (and that certainly includes you and I, my dear
> Alfredo) in business.
>
> Cynical ? Perhaps. A market insuperable reality ? Certainly.
>
> > Go figure.
>
> See above for details.
>
> Anyway, I would never shoot point-blank on business school graduates without
> carefully thinking before. After all, I may shoot myself.
>
> Christian
>
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