>Richard Gambrell writes:
 
>[lots of good comments snipped]
 
>That said, if we leave Image behind (for the relational world), why should we
>keep MPE? Alternatively, if MPE's main advantage is as a database server,
>then HP should pump this up as much as possible and forget about the rest,
>(which, more or less, seems to be what they *are* doing) then we *may*
>continue to have reason enough to stay on MPE. The latter is our plan as
>well as our hope.
 
I think you have asked the proverbial $64k question. That is: "why would you
buy an HP 3000 system today, or in the near future?".
 
I can think of some reasons:
 
1. You are an existing 3k customer and you need more horsepower or an
additional system. You want to keep your investment in 3k technology.
 
2. You have a software package that runs on the 3k.
 
3. You want a general purpose business computer system. You don't want to
deal with unix, you don't believe NT will scale for your needs, and you like
the price performance and ease of use/operability the 3k gives you over
other mid-range solutions (as/400 for example).
 
I doubt if HP gets new 3k business due to any of the following:
 
1. just have to have Image/SQL as a database engine
2. the c/s software development tools are so good the 3k is an excellent choice
3. HP marketing/sales for the 3k is so good the business just has to get one
(I'm laughing as I type this...)
 
So, if HP is selling tons of unix boxes and lots of netservers for nt, why
do they care about mpe? And with the current trend-o-software companies
writing for unix/nt and not mpe, what does HP make of that?
 
What a company spends time/money on shows its true interest. They spent
engineering time to create a low cost conversion of an mpe box to a unix box
with just a board swap/nameplate kit. Looks like they care more about unix
than mpe.
 
I look forward to some interesting discussions at IPROF.
 
 
Duane Percox  (QSS)
[log in to unmask] (415-306-1608, fax 415-365-2706)
http://www.aimnet.com/~qssnet/
 ftp://ftp.aimnet.com/pub/users/qssnet/
"The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas." -- Linus Pauling