HP may remain tight-lipped about its support of the movement to extend the life of the 3000’s operating environment, but OpenMPE directors are spreading the word about a new donation program that will give the organization visibility, equipment and perhaps even cash to spend on its projects. Donor levels of Bronze, Gold, Silver and Platinum appeared on the organization’s www.OpenMPE.org Web site, although such donations are unlikely to be tax deductible. However, the membership fees to belong to OpenMPE will qualify as tax deductions for companies who join, if the Internal Revenue Service in the US gives the organization its desired 501(c)6 tax status. The paperwork can take as much as four months to move through the IRS, according to board chairman Jon Backus, making it a race between the IRS and HP’s 3000 division as to which group will first have an official relationship with OpenMPE, Inc. HP’s Jeff Vance announced the donation levels on the 3000-L mailing list, but he’s been careful not to tie his board status to any broader HP statement of support. The group’s mission remains “to be the custodian for the MPE/iX Operating System that is at the center of the MPE community.” A statement from the board said that “As OpenMPE also serves as central information resource, there are ongoing expenses even now. There is the cost of the Web site, the cost of communicating with the community, legal and accounting fees for the setup of the organization and receipt of donations to date.”

Backus, who led a meeting of 59 attendees plus the board on a Saturday morning just as the Solutions Symposium was ending, remained confident of OpenMPE’s ability to extend the useful life of the 3000. “I’m more hopeful than ever,” Backus said. “The reality from HP is that it may be a stepped sort of thing; when they start moving in the right direction, they may allow us to be an MPE licensing agent before they agree to giving us the source code.” Backus added that OpenMPE is not in the business of giving people more time to migrate.

Evidence that HP is planning to make an OpenMPE announcement continued to surface during April, when the company’s Webcast on migration began with a note that OpenMPE topics wouldn’t be discussed that day. Despite the disclaimer, R&D chief Dave Wilde addressed the question in a Q&A session during the Webcast. He said that customers should expect an HP decision on how it will support OpenMPE by “early summer.” Clark County, Nev., a poster child for the success of the platform just two years ago, asked HP if the company would consider extending support of MPE/iX 6.5 to the end of 2006 instead of the release’s December, 2003 deadline. Like some companies, the county’s Rich Rankin hopes to save his organization millions of dollars in migration costs by staying on its current MPE release. “Companies like us can re-appropriate the money we’d spend on migration to MPE 7.0 and 7.5 toward the replacement of our existing applications,” said Rankin. HP’s Wilde answered that “We’re working very actively to assess customer needs in that area. I’d like to not trickle answers out, but look at things as a package. My personal goal is to answer as many of them in the late spring, early summer time frame, and not to wait for HP World to do that.”