HP 3000 customers’ summertime concerns about the platform’s position in HP’s multi-OS strategy are cooling in the fall. Organizer Wirt Atmar of AICS Research announced he will refund the thousands of dollars customers donated via check and credit card in to buy an ad in the Wall Street Journal — an ad that would have asked HP CEO Carly Fiorina to promote the e3000’s successes and give it a full place in the HP corporate firmament. “Since HP World, passions for placing the ad have clearly cooled off,” Atmar posted on the Internet, where the cries of protest first began.

HP cognizance of the platform might be trickling into its advertising, Atmar added. He noted a Computerworld ad for the new Superdome HP system with a line touting the big iron as having “Flexibility that’s ready for IA-64, and flexibility that comes from multiple operating systems like HP-UX, Linux, Windows 2000, and others yet to be.” Some protesters wanted the ad monies retained, but with no schedule to use them, Atmar refunded the contributions for the campaign this month. Another customer who contributed said the focal point of the ad was enough. “It did make upper level HP executives stop and notice at least enough to cause them to re-record their taped speeches,” said Joseph Rosenblatt of the protest. “We accomplished as much by threatening to place the ad as we would have if we had placed the ad.”