Patrick, you wrote :

>  I want to thank everyone who offered feedback, in response
> to my post on
> Friday,  on the HP 3000 "wakes."

Always a pleasure to discuss the 3000.

> Many who offered feedback said the system had unusual reliability, and
> that's why there is strong emotional connection to it.

I beg to differ, if only very slightly. I agree with the exceptional
reliability of the 3000 and its operating system MPE. Except that we all
seem to have a rather short memory. Recent posts reminded everyone that the
3000 was not born rock-stable and reliable. It hung. It fell And, sometimes,
it died. Without going as far back as the early-70s when it was first
introduced (I was not yet a 3000 geek at the time, I was in junior high),
let me remind everyone of the late MPE/XL beta (perhaps even still
code-named HPE at the time) and early MPE/XL commercial releases, which were
less than stable. The bad thing is that the early times of MPE/XL were not
that easy. Those who were there (I was) probably all remember. The good
thing is that dumpreaders learned their craft very, very fast. I was mostly
a dumpreader at the time.

So for me the emotional connection may be a bout reliability, but it's more
recent. The older emotional connection is more about excitement doing some
high-level trouble-shooting, working in connection with the people who were
writing the OS itself, all during my formative years (mid-20s). Yes, we
worked long days, but we got tremendous return in the form of an ultra fast
track to technical savvy and, yes, thats' true too, a reliable system.

> No doubt, many will likely "homestead" on this system -- so
> here's my next
> question:.
>
> Once HP ends support in 2006, how long do you think companies will
> realistically be able to homestead on the HP 3000 for
> production systems?

As a reseller, integrator and service provider, I have already refocused
part of my activities on other platforms. That refocusing actually began
long before 11/14. In fact, the IT Infrastructure here at APPIC has nevr
been a 3000 activity. It was always designed around a multi-platform,
mutli-product, multi-market paradigm. As certainly as I have to plan my
team's activities around what the market tells us, I will maintain MPE core
competencies for as long as I can see a market for them, even a niche
market.

> Also, let me just ask this: for those who attended a "wake"
> -- do you think
> this was a one-time only event? Will future ones be held?
> Will something
> come out of these events?

On that point also, I may have to differ from my friends in the USA and
other large HP3000 installed bases. France has now become a very small
installed base, dwindling on a weekly basis. So, although I registered a
venue, no one but another person and me registered. So I ended up doing
Halloween with my kids instead.

Future wakes ? No idea. But if there are gathering events with 3000 people
and I find myself in the neighborhood, I'd be glad to join.

> Again, thanks to those who offered feedback.
>
> Sincerely,
> Patrick Thibodeau

Christian Lheureux

* To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, *
* etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *