On Tue, 26 Mar 2002 12:01:07 +0000, John Dunlop <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >You can read about HP's plans here : > >http://www.crn.com/Sections/BreakingNews/dailyarchives.asp?ArticleID=34126 > >Cheers, > >John Dunlop > The most interesting thing in the above referenced article was that HP plans to continue production of the PA-RISC (HP-UX based) servers until 2005. Even more importantly, they will fully support the PA-RISC server line until at least 2015 -- that's 10 years (not 5) after the date of last sale/EOL! Now, since the hardware is identical for MPE & HP-UX, why can't HP use the same EOL parameters for MPE as HP-UX? One of the more brilliant strategies about MPE/XL that CSY did was to be able to piggy-back on the hardware development that was going on anyway with HP-UX; i.e., they did not have to develop a separate hardware platform for MPE. So why not offer MPE for sale until 2005? Since HP doesn't have any marketing costs (deemed pointless some time ago) for MPE, it is simply a matter of taking any orders that find their way in the door and increasing overall hardware volume with no additional effort. Hardware support between MPE & HP-UX systems is the same thing, why not write support agreements until 2015 for any PA-RISC system (even if it runs MPE)? Again, this is just extra business (profit) for the same in-place resources. This means that only software support capability (Response Center PICS and S.E.'s) needs to be retained as an extra consideration until 2015 or so long as enough customers want it. This is paid for by service agreements. Since MPE is so stable HP could even get away without lab support for new peripherals and patches, as long as customers understand that MPE would be frozen at some point (11-2003). So what's the problem with this picture? * To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, * * etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *