Daniel Kosack made some good points:
 
>   Hold on here folks...  I know I should be a little more understanding
> here, but even MPE/iX folks at HP bash HP UX products for their enormous
> budget costs.  I believe the figure ended up being around $56,000 for a
> 64 license MPE box, and $57,000 for a 64 license HPUX box (prices
> adjusted for some strange 'fairness' reasons).
 
Well, to be fair, those costs (which came from a slideset which I helped put
together), you can buy a 64 license HPUX box for about $10,000.  The extra
costs that you're quoting represent additional software required to bring the
UNIX box up to a level of functionality roughly on a par with what you get for
$56K with an MPE box.  In a high school environment, you may not need that.
What you get with UNIX (even LINUX) may be enough.  If so - more power to you.
 
> This is all fine and grand
> for those who can throw money at computers, and for those who have
> strictly HP stuff.  However, I doubt that there are many out in real life
> that have 100% HP everything in their office.
 
Well, actually, there are.  They tend not to be educational institutions.  They
tend to be large corporations running mission critical applications, that are
willing to spend a lot of extra money to get MPE reliability.  Once again, to
each his own....
 
> MPE/V boxes are all that I
> have of HP in my high school, however, down at the IIS, they use UX and
> MPE/iX boxes together, mainly because they can afford it.
>
>   Basically, I guess what I'm asking is, is there support, FAQ's,
> anything for those of us who would like a little interconnectivity, even
> just to share data, between our UNIX PC's or low end Sun workstations,
> our MPE systems, and WfW, or is HP only going to toot it's on horn in
> proprietary compatibility?
 
Admittedly, the broadcast is focused on MPE/iX, not MPE/V.  So there isn't
going to be a lot of content there for you.  But as for HP "tooting it's
own horn in proprietary compatibility, I believe that you are being a little
unfair.  You'll find that virtually every technology that we are going to
talk about on next week's broadcast works just as well with low-end Sun
workstations as it does with HP-UX.
>
>   I'm sorry to say this, but I just don't see the use of spending
> $10,000 in products for an obsolete system (MPE/V stuff) to make it
> connect, however I'm not completely convinced that there are no other
> alternatives, and I'm actively seeking them even if I have to develop
> them myself.
 
I wouldn't disagree with you.  It would be interesting to see how much it would
cost you to upgrade your MPE/V box to an MPE/iX box - which would get you the
connectivity you need, a lot more power, potentially lower support costs (in
some cases, low enough to pay for the upgrade), and open the doors to a lot
more functionality.  Just a thought.
 
>
> Daniel Kosack -=Linux Man=-
>
 
 
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-geo