Number 68 (Update of Volume 7, Issue 1)

Partners with plans for Homesteading

In the few days since HP's surprising announcement about ending its support of the e3000 in five years, a host of companies are coming forward with announcements of their mission to light the system's windows indefinitely. Many of these companies began their business lives with the system, so there's no lack of expertise on hand -- and more than a few could go toe-to-toe with HP's experts on any day.

We're already seen announcements on the Web and Internet for these firms and individuals:

Allegro Consultants <http://www.allegro.com> ("If you want to continue to use your HP e3000 for the next 25 years, we at Allegro will help you do so.");

Robelle <http://www.robelle.com> ("I started on the HP 3000 before the first system was shipped from HP and I plan to be there long after the last 3000 is shipped.");

Adager <http://www.adager.com> ("My vision is to let MPE/Image survive *and prosper* beyond anybody's wildest dreams. I prefer to think that the time for MPE/Image to truly take off has finally arrived.");

AICS Research <http:// www.aics-research.com> ("We'll do everything we can to extend the life of MPE much beyond HP's end-of-support-date. More than that, we'll do what we can to actually increase its user base. It's simply too good an operating system to so easily give up on.");

Minisoft <http://www.minisoft.com> ("As long as we have customers using the HPe3000 platform, we will continue to produce new versions of our products.")

Ideal Computer Services <http://www.icsgroup.com> ("We will continue to provide hardware support for our beloved 3000 and partner with the gurus at Allegro to provide software support.);

Ron Horner Consulting <http://horner.horner.home.mindspring.com> ("I pledge to all HP 3000 customers that Horner Consulting will support all existing and new clients well past 2007.");

Computer Solutions <http://www.internetcsi.com> ("My company will continue to support the 3000 in the
capacities we have provided in the past for as long as there is ANY customer demand.")

These firms appear to be the first of what we are calling Homesteaders, companies who like the pioneers who have made a stand in their homeland, facing of the forces of change which HP has introduced to the market. There will be others in the weeks and months to come, and we encourage them to contact us as a place to make their missions known.

Other HP 3000 partners who have made similar stands in the opening days of the 3000 Transition:

M.B. Foster Associates, offering a Dec. 5 Web seminar on "Transition and Migration Planning - should I go or should I stay?" with details at <http://www.mbfoster.com/migration/index.cfm>. The company is helping to organize a Customer Care Consortium at the same time, one of whose missions is "investigating the technology needed to assist the customers in supporting their environments, including the possibility of Open Source for MPE, or HP MPE being transferred to the right consortium for distribution and maintenance."

Speedware <http://www.speedware.com> which stated that "As long as we have customers using the
platform, we will continue to produce new versions of our products for the HP e3000." The company is also providing migration paths to Speedware on HP-UX and other platforms, saying "Whether our customers plan to tackle migrations this year or in the years to come, our goal is to make their transition as smooth as possible for them."

Lund Performance Solutions <http://www.lund.com> ("Will continue software development, support, and professional services well into the future, surpassing operating system support life" and "will assist you in mapping a system performance baseline, formulating a plan for system and application migration, planning the system capacity with alternatives, and managing the transition.")

The announcements show evidence of an alternative to HP's migration proposal for the customer base, plans outlined in ever-growing detail on the HP Web site. To its credit, the vendor sees that the option to leave everything in place is a possibility. In its first "Transition Considerations" white paper, under the "leave it" section, HP says "If you think your application is solid and the HP e3000 box you are running is solid, you might be thinking you could just leave everything 'as it is.' Use caution if you're tempted by this option. HP strongly discourages running production applications without proper support. Hardware and software support will not be available from HP after December 31, 2006. There may be third party support available, but HP has no influence on the quality of this support, and there will not be HP support available as a safety net in the event the third party can't fix your problems." Full text of the White Paper is at <http://www.hp.com/products1/mpeixservers/future/nextsteps/education/transition_wp.html>

You can expect to learn about both the Migration and Homesteading options for your Transition in the coming issues of the 3000 NewsWire. Third-party support is one of the traditions for the HP 3000 market — something that customers will be able to rely upon to give them time to decide how their transition will develop.

A system even profits couldn't protect

During the past few years the mantra of "but it's a profitable product line" was often invoked by HP 3000 customers. HP was measuring the prospects for the product in other ways, according to comments from HP CSY General Manager Winston Prather. The decision was sparked by CSY's estimation of the strength of the partner community, an entity it calls "the ecosystem."

As usual, Prather couldn't comment on whether the mantra of profitability in recent years was true. But he did say that "The profitability of the product line was not part of why we made this decision. So whether we were losing money or making money, we're trying to figure out what is the right thing for customers and predicting the future. This wasn't a balance sheet decision. This was a 'what's the right thing for customers' decision. To be real honest, we just rolled an entire new product line -- and it would have been financially better for us to sell them for a year before we made a decision like this." HP hopes to sell its A-Class and N-Class computers for two more years.

Getting in on OpenMPE discussions

As the e3000 community considers its options for the future, advocates are opening discussions about how to launch an Open Source-like effort for extending the life of the operating system and its database. The Internet discussions are surfacing in the first week outside of the most popular HP 3000 newsgroup, 3000-L. A group on Yahoo has begun the talks about how to get MPE development into the hands of its customers, a possibility that HP is willing to consider if not commit to immediately. Jon Backus, founder of the Tech Group University training center, invites everyone to participate:

"There has been a separate discussion group created to "seriously" discuss and review the idea of MPE moving to a "Open Source" module. Topics of discussion will include the idea of a "Linux" style module versus a "Coop" style module. The viability of MPE being maintained by any other group outside of HP. The likelihood of porting MPE to another hardware platform.

"This group is for people seriously interested in discussing and being involved in this concept, in a calm rational fashion. It is not intended to continue or fuel the emotional reactions. For those people that have been involved with MPE for a long period of time, such as myself, this announcement will invoke a very similar emotional reaction as a death of a loved one. There are many stages to this type of grieving process and anger is a very legitimate stage. However, there is a need to take a deep breath and consider the options in a rational way. We are talking about the heart and soul of the IT infrastructure for many companies and decisions and forward paths will need to be determined as quickly and soundly as possible.

"If you wish to take part in this discussion, please subscribe by sending email to OpenMPE-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

Backus updated us after our transmission of the Online Extra by e-mail, saying that the Open Source model doesn't appear to be in favorwith the Homestead group of the community; some think the model is not fit for a customer base of the 3000's size, or a technology as mature and large as MPE and IMAGE.

"The feeling and desire is very much not "open source," he said. "The opening e-mail presented several models for the sake of open discussion, but the vast majority feeling, which I completely agree with, is a migration of support and control of the entire MPE environment, including IMAGE, to a new entity. The "source" would continue to be closely controlled, similar to the way it is today. This, like OpenVMS, is the objective of the OpenMPE group."

And there is some precedent for HP to transfer complex e3000 technology to an outside entity. Exegesys, which took over the MM II ERP application from HP, had one of its developers comment when Charles Finley of migration supplier TransforMix <http://www.xformix.com> asked if HP had ever given up source code:

"Just making sure you haven't forgotten about us," wrote Exegesys' Keven Miller, "not open source, but source received from HP: HP MM II is a large source project. With what we have, and learned to manage, I believe anything HP has can be tackled, no matter what shape it's in. It's just time -- to experienced programmers in reading code, and scripts that build. (Maybe even decomping and re-SPL for those few missing sources :)"

Customers who are interested in OpenMPE can make their wishes known — or comment on the shortcomings of the prospect — by taking a one-page survey. The document is available at <http://www.TechGroupMD.com/OpenMPE.htm> and can be faxed back to Tech Group at 301.714.1854. The group is in talks with the e3000 division managers about the idea, so comments could have an impact on the progress of Open Source.

Price comparisons: not so favorable

In the days leading up to HP's announcement, customers made comparisons between HP e3000 and HP 9000 solutions -- especially apt, given the push that the 3000 division has made toward the HP-UX alternative. One customer using both platforms reported the prices from the HP Web site for comparable low-end systems:

HP 9000 A-class two way 550 with 4Gb memory, two 36Gb disks, and HP-UX, costs $45,000.

A-class HP 3000 140Mhz two way, 4Gb memory, two 36Gb disks, and MPE/iX 7.0 costs $43,000.

The HP 3000 solution, of course, includes the IMAGE database, something not available on the HP 9000 configuration.

A similar price point for hardware ready for Linux offers more horsepower: a 4-way IA-64, 800Mhz, 4Gb memory, 36Gb hot swappable disk, mirrored to 36 Gb disk, split backplane, CD-ROM, with Linux/64 pre-installed is about $50,000.

FTP patches arrive for more functionality

While Transition considerations are vital issues, there's still tens of thousands of HP e3000s to be managed for years to come. One of the 3000's growing capabilities is in the FTP file transfer protocol, and a new set of patches gives more features than ever in this category. HP general-released patches for MPE/iX 6.0, 6.5 and 7.0 -- FTPGD91, FTPGD92 and FTPGD93, respectively -- which add new commands for FTP on the 3000. SITE STREAM supports the execution STREAM of a MPE batch job file from a FTP client which has already established a connection to the HP e3000. A NETRC file supports an automated logon to a remote host. And the PASSIVE command is an enhancement added to the FTP Client and FTP Server to support third-party transfers. HP engineer James Hoffmeister said that PASSIVE "is an important implementation for sites using firewall technology, securing access from users or systems external to their local intranet.

And HP has added some security to its FTP for the e3000 with the PASSWORD = ON configuration option. The enhancement added to the FTP Server supports the ability to restrict the establishment of FTP connections to MPE USER.ACCOUNT's where at least one password -- a USER password or an ACCOUNT password -- must exist. By using PASSWORD = ON, the FTP server will reject any attempt to establish an inbound FTP client connection to the e3000 for MPE USER.ACCOUNTs which do not have at least one MPE logon password. A CONSOLE_LOGGING = ON" SETPARMS.ARPA.SYS configuration option is a security enhancement added to the FTP Server which supports the logging of MPE session logon attempts (success and failure) on inbound FTP connections to the HP e3000 system. The messages are logged on the system console as well as to the MPE system logfiles.

Invent3K, Bixby run with business as usual

HP 3000 advocates and customers might have been dismayed about where the announcement of the systems' end of support came from -- the e3000 division itself, and not from the top corporate echelons of HP. But there's plenty of evidence that those in the division are both saddened by the CSY decision and still dedicated to the passion of using the platform. Division engineer Mark Bixby, who came to the group with a reputation for porting software to the platform, announced there's no change in the Invent3K Server, the public resource HP opened up earlier this year to assist in porting and development. Bixby said in an Internet posting:

"Today's news regarding the future of the HP e3000 does not change the status of the Invent3K public access machine. We are still accepting registrations for access at http://jazz.external.hp.com/pads/.
Attention ISVs -- if you would like to use Invent3K to showcase demo versions of your migration tools, please register at the above URL. "

Bixby is hard at work on the latest version of Sendmail for the e3000, too, in spite of the division's announcements.  It could serve as proof the next few years will include enhancements from HP for a system which it says it won't support beyond the end of 2006. Bixby reported:

"The 8.12.1 [Sendmail] beta available from<http://jazz.external.hp.com/src/sendmail/> is the latest and greatest. There are currently 19 beta testers, and they've found one documentation bug on the Web page (corrected), and made one enhancement for it to more conveniently install on top of 8.9.1 (to be enhanced at production release).

"8.12.1 will be submitted to MPE/iX 7.5 as a fully supported part of FOS. There will also be a fully supported 7.0 patch. There will be no official HP support on versions of MPE earlier than 7.0.

"However, I have tested 8.12.1 on 6.0 and 6.5 and it seems to run just fine. There will be no HPRC support for Sendmail on these MPE releases; if you have any questions, post them to HP 3000-L or e-mail me directly and I will answer as time permits. Which is basically the same level of "support" you get with 8.9.1. ;-)

"8.12.1 definitely handles messages piped to programs better. Programs that terminate in error will have any stderr output bounced back to the message sender, whereas 8.9.1 was unable to due to porting workaround reasons."

Bixby is also working on making good on HP's promise to deliver a free secure Web server for the platform in the 7.5 release. His heart, perhaps like that of many an HP CSY staffer, remains clearly wedded to the computer, as evidenced by a message he transmitted during the week of the announcement. Customers posted song lyrics to express their emotions, and Bixby chose one from Carly Simon's catalog to represent the way he felt about his relationship to the computer:

BETTER NOT TELL HER

Better not tell her, that I was your lover
Better not make her jealous of me
Better convince her there was nothing between us
I'm not those initials in your diary
But if you slip and my name comes up
Don't deny that you knew me
Just leave out the white nights
The moon in your window
The break in your whisper
The promises after

Better not tell her why you love Spanish dancing
Don't bother to say that it's hot in the summer in Madrid
Let it all go now, Like smoke from a candle
Like the trace of a song that you hear in the wind
But if you slip and my name comes up
Don't deny that you knew me
Just leave out the white nights
The moon in your window
The break in your whisper
The promises after
Leave out the tears and the laughter
She won't need to know
That I cried when you left
That I think of you still

But if you slip and my name comes up
Don't deny that you knew me
Just leave out the white nights
The moon in your window
The break in your whisper
The promises after
Leave out the tears and the laughter
She won't need to know
That I'd die for your love
That I still...love...you