> If HP does succeed in killing off the HP3000, as they seem > to be hinting,it looks like an expensive proposition for > some companies. Yes, and that is the sad thing about this. I have come to the conclusion that HP marketing is now little better then the stock brokerage houses who churn their client's accounts devouring their capital in brokerage fees and commissions. It isn't the client's interest that is paramount, it is making money for the owners regardless of the consequences. This deal with Unix and NT at HP would be laughable if it weren't so blatently money grubbing. Sure boys, move off this rock solid, proven work-horse and buy unix with the DBM$ of the month. Now that your used to living from hand to pocketbook, we'll get you onto NT, a product so stable it gives quicksand a good name. After all, if you can't trust MicroSoft to get a multi-user operating system right, who can you trust? Look, I know that there are a lot of reasons why O/S's come and go. I know that applications drive machine purchases. But let's face it. HP has gone out of its way to make sure that small startup software houses do not have the ability to get the tools necessary to get stuff out for the HP3000. They're none too swift on the 9000 side of the house in that regard either, but the existance of GNU and the high availablity of free tools for unix makes that a non-critcal issue for unix. I would think that a GUI for MPE/iX would go a long way to making it a more "fashionable" choice. They have already given in to the long file names and /path/for/ever/type/file/systems. I don't really believe that "open systems" means much to anyone seriously looking into large scale computer systems. There just ain't no sich critter. All you really have to do to get past the suits is have the right cost / benefit ratio, a reasonable business case, and a pretty face (for the o/s that is). MPE/iX beats unix hands down in the first two, a little makeover in the interface salon and she'd do pretty well in the last as well. Sigh.... -- James B. Byrne mailto:[log in to unmask] Harte & Lyne Limited http://www.harte-lyne.ca Hamilton, Ontario 905-561-1241