Hello Friends,

I am glad to see Mark report on his installations for his client, a 
major airline transaction processor. I have heard from more than one 
3000 community member about new installations of HP 3000s. So new 
installs are a non-zero number. (Oh, and to explain, a K-Class 3000 
is a Series 9xx system. The same kind that sell for $1,800 in their 
very smallest size, more than a decade after HP introduced them.)

At this stage of the 3000's life, these numbers are not what matters 
anymore, although they are a very easy metric to count.

I'll have more to say about this on our blog today, but it's too 
early to tote up the HP 3000's platform value. In case you haven't 
noticed, the world's economy experienced a reboot over the past 30 
days, and people are revising their assessments concerning computers. 
HP has not sold an HP 3000 for five years, as of this Friday. The 
number of new systems is of far less importance than the number of 
old experts. From the looks of the traffic on this newsgroup/list, 
that group is retaining its critical mass.

Speedware has been making a business out of employing HP 3000 experts 
for several years. Next month in our printed issue I've got 
interviews with a few new one-man support suppliers, serving 
companies of all sizes, and Adager tells me they encounter new 
vendors like this while Adager works with its customers. Jim's 
success in learning new technologies is a good one which will have 
value to a 3000 installation, should HP really keep a promise to sell 
an emulator license for MPE -- and some company release an emulator.

HP will not be doing anything more to support the 3000 with anything 
new, starting in 2009 -- with the exception of what OpenMPE can wrest 
in promises for intellectual property use of MPE/iX. That's what 
happens when you shut down your development labs. The lights go out 
on HP's 3000 creativity at the end of this year. "What's new lately" 
is a question which HP answered for the last time in the summer of 
2007, when the SCSI pass through driver was released.

Not to hijack this thread, but has anyone experienced the value of 
that SCSI engineering? Craig Fairchild of HP said last summer that 
using this final gift "is not for the faint of heart." The experts on 
this list have shown very strong hearts, older yes, but still true.

Best to all, and tell us what you're doing with your 3000,

Ron Seybold
3000 NewsWire

300newswire.com/blog

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