New poll shows homestead,
non-migration plans lead transitions

The new consolidated user group Web site hpuseradvocacy.org was running an InstaPoll in late September that showed more than 60 percent of customers who responded are homesteading or hoping for an open source future for MPE.

The Web site, a joint venture of HP, Interex and the Encompass users group, asked customers how many have already migrated, plan to migrate within a year, will migrate within two years or migrate with an unspecified time frame. Less than 40 percent of the 128 respondents reported any migration plans at all for their HP 3000 applications.

The solution “Hoping for Open Source” had drawn 21.1 percent response, and more than 40 percent of customers reported they were homesteading. Open source options for the MPE/iX operating system and the IMAGE database had been dismissed by HP, but the structure of “Open Source” was not defined in the Web site poll. OpenMPE, which is exploring future hardware and software options for the platform, has proposed a virtual lab can be assembled to work with MPE for use beyond 2006.

OpenMPE board member Ken Sletten said that “if it’s fair to generally lump Open Source and Homesteading as at least somewhat together, [this poll] says that of the people voting nearly two-thirds still have no plans to migrate. That’s higher than I would have expected at this point, nearly two years since HP announced its end of life for the e3000.”