Number 81 (Update of Volume 8, Issue 2)

HP wants just one version of MPE for emulation

Discussion on the OpenMPE mailing list indicates that HP's getting specific about its support of MPE for Homesteading customers. It's a good sign that the company intends to provide specific help for the 3000 customers who can't cost-justify migration. Jeff Vance, the HP engineer sitting on the OpenMPE board of directors, is saying that HP wants to narrow the number of versions of MPE to one for customers who want to use Intel-based emulators in the future. (Two companies are planning to build such software, which lets a PC pretend it's a PA-RISC HP 3000).

Vance said that HP "sees value" in a single version of the OS for emulator licenses. "Not requiring a special version of MPE for the emulator seems desirable to CSY. It may also be desirable to the emulator vendors, I don't know. They could then say that exactly the same version of MPE that runs on a e3000 also runs via their emulator."

In the plan, "the same version of MPE will run on an emulator and on a 3000. So, it is undesirable (at least now) to create a special version of MPE (minus ODBC, MKS, and streams) so that we can reduce the price of a new MPE license. This puts an extra burden on the emulator vendors, creates a situation where a production MKS shell script no longer works on the emulator, creates licensing issues for HP (if we include open source replacements for the missing pieces)... Essentially, we would no be delivering a working version of MPE with these parts gone."

Vance added that HP sees value in the OS, "enough to fund 'CSY' in various efforts aimed at working out ways for MPE to be viable post-2006, even though the official HP and CSY message is to migrate or at least plan for an eventual migration. Enough to fund non-migration focused HP attendees at HP World and the two upcoming Solution Symposiums."

Interex unveils second 3000 Symposium date

What was once a single all-3000 training opportunity a year has doubled in scope, as Interex released dates for an East Coast US Solutions Symposium to go along with its traditional West Coast show. The shows are about a month apart, with Valley Forge, PA getting the nod for the first Eastern meeting of what Interex is calling the e3000 Solutions and Migration Symposium. Valley Forge (really King of Prussia, PA for you travel planners) runs March 26-29, while San Jose holds forth April 23-26. Get details at the Interex Solution Symposium Web page for now. And look for an interview with Interex chief of advocacy Debbie Lawson-Kirkwood in an upcoming issue of the NewsWire. Lawson-Kirkwood runs the Symposiums for Interex, and we're looking forward to getting her views on the user group's expansion of 3000 training.

Interex is also running a Web-based survey to gather needs from customers, reporting the information to HP and its members. Weigh in with what you need and where you're headed with your 3000s at the Interex Web site. Remember, there's no limit to who can complete the survey -- members and non-members alike can fill out the form, which will help both HP and OpenMPE plan for the coming year.

Euro user groups merge before North America's

Breaking ground once more for Americans, the Europeans have already established a user group alliance between HP and Compaq groups. The HP Computer User Association's Deputy Editor Cecilia Dennett reports that "we in Europe have managed to create a federation that genuinely respects the traditions of both sets of user groups, and looks set to mount a successful European Conference and use the profits therefrom to create more services for user groups in Europe." Dennett notes the North American groups are still months away from such an alliance. "Meanwhile, over the pond, the HP User Groups are separate, and have no immediate plans to merge. Not even a talking shop..."

In Europe there will be a joint meeting to show that the Europeans are doing more than talking. HP-Interex EMEA, the newly-merged European Federation of User Groups, will be organizing a European Conference for HP Users in Amsterdam on May 17-21, 2003. This event will be the first European event to cover both the former Compaq, as well as 'old HP' users, and will benefit from the expertise of both Interex-Europe and CUO EMEA (Compaq User Organisation). The Call for Presentations is currently being drafted. If you have an interest in presenting at this European event, please send an e-mail to usersweek@hpusers.org.uk.

MB Foster's UDACentral sale ends Dec. 31

It's the new roundhouse to get data from one kind of database to another during Transition moves, and MB Foster's UDACentral is going to be on sale only through the end of this month. The company is positioning the software as a tool with use well beyond the migration of HP 3000 sites, handling conversion from IMAGE to Oracle as a starter. You can save up to 48 percent through Dec. 31 on the Java application. For more details head to MB Foster's Web page on UDACentral.

COBOL gets its new standard set, at long last

The long-awaited COBOL standard was finally ratified in November, giving suppliers like Acucorp and MicroFocus something more to shoot at in coming versions of their COBOL compilers. Acucorp will be taking on the needs of the 3000 community that's looking for a more modern COBOL compiler, since HP's efforts on behalf of COBOL II will be waning over the next several years. When standards committees worked at the first attempts at getting the COBOL standard set, people seemed sure it would be called COBOL97 -- as in 1997.

SIGCOBOL chair Jeanette Nutsford reported that"I have great pleasure in informing you that the new international 2002 COBOL standard has been published and is available for purchase in PDF format from ISO at http://www.iso.ch." The cost is a bit steep for those prepared for lower prices through Web-based documents: $225 for a download. Nutsford added that "I am looking for a source with a more reasonable cost (preferably zero). I think the ISO cost is aimed at companies who want to develop a compiler to the standard. They don't recognise an individual's need in this situation."

HP moving Amazon toward Linux, not HP-UX

It's a brag from HP on its newest business deal with Amazon, but the story might read differently if you're thinking of making an enterprise-grade commitment to HP-UX during a transition from the 3000. HP recently signed on Amazon for the much lower-cost Linux platform instead of more Unix servers; HP had swung Amazon away from Sun's Unix to HP-UX during 2001.

In a story posted from the front page of its Web site, HP boasted that, "Low prices are great for the customer, but they can severely test a company's bottom line. The key to Amazon.com's new business plan success was finding new ways to reduce operating costs -- without affecting the positive customer experience associated with running the Internet's most user-friendly site."

HP said it was "Deploying a Linux-based operating environment across Amazon.com's entire global enterprise" and that the shift offered obvious benefits, including cost-saving flexibility, scalability and ease-of-use." Customers are noting that nearly every 3000 alternative comes with higher costs of ownership, but Linux might offer something at least close to the MPE and IMAGE bargain.

HP said it "worked closely with Amazon.com to design and deploy a strategy that would effectively migrate the company's servers to a Linux platform. The switch has paid off. Amazon.com's new Linux-based platform provides the company with one of the world's most flexible, stable and economical networks. How economical? In one year alone, Amazon.com reduced its technology and content costs by 20 percent."

We might misunderstand the scope of the Linux win at Amazon. But if HP is moving high uptime sites like Amazon directly to Linux, why should its customers stop off at HP-UX?

Patchwatch: New CI file, HP support tools for 6.5

HP's still releasing patches for its HP 3000 operating system, and some of them are delivering new functionality as well as bug fixes. We spotted one for the 6.5 release that drops new diagnostic tools into the toolbelt, programs based on Unix counterparts. HP's patch digest service reports that patch NRCMXB8A adds support tools update fmtioerr, tcpip, netmac as well as a new CI command
file called ftimes.

Eloquence 3000 Inc. opens wing off Robelle's halls

It's not officially a part of Robelle's software operations, but Robelle founder Bob Green has started up Eloquence 3000 Inc. as a way to for migrating customers to get the database HP's picking as an IMAGE workalike onto HP's Unix systems. Eloquence 3000 Inc. will sell and support the Eloquence database on HP-UX as a migration target for TurboIMAGE applications. "Having converted our Suprtool/UX product to Eloquence," Green said, "we learned a lot about Eloquence and we were impressed." Eloquence recently became a wholly-owned product of Marxmeier Software AG; Green's new firm is an authorized Eloquence reseller, focusing on the HP 3000 migration market.

HP 3000 users can obtain Eloquence trials, quotes, updates, advice and technical support from the Eloquence 3000 Web site.

Green offered upbeat comments on what Eloquence means for 3000 users. "It allows them to maintain the same database and access methods on HP-UX as on MPE," he said. "The performance is faster than using IMAGE-wrapper software to make a relational database look like IMAGE, and the cost of ownership is much less. And users have the power of Robelle's Suprtool database tool on both platforms as well. The result is dramatically reduced cost of migration and the elimination of the risk and stress of re-engineering the database design, structure and program access."

Green's interest in Eloquence springs from the database's new relationship with Robelle's Suprtool on MPE, a database utility that extracts, links, sorts, rearranges, exports, reports and updates data from TurboIMAGE databases and MPE files. "Suprtool on HP-UX performs the same functions for Eloquence databases," Green said. "With a few simple commands, you can do amazing things with your data. All without having to write a program. And, you can have the same scripts with the same databases on both MPE and HP-UX, meaning that this part of migrating an application is simple and low risk."

Green added that, "We have been using the Eloquence database since November, 2001 when we started integrating it into our Suprtool product for HP-UX. Our experience has been fantastic. The software is solid, fast, and compatible with TurboIMAGE. The Eloquence R&D team at Marxmeier is responsive and very knowledgeable."