Thanks flow freely here in the US today, on a day when most of us here celebrate the arrival of pies, sleep-inducing turkey dinners and a holiday for nearly everyone after 2PM. In much of the world, though, this is a working day; Thanksgiving in November is a strictly-American holiday.

We give thanks for being a part of your lives, in the aid of IT managers making their Transitions; working alongside the HP partners who help you stay productive on your 3000s or marshal migration forces; carrying the message from HP and its competition about alternatives, in the spirit of looking into everything.

(Okay, we know: Apple has not succeeded in making its Unix solutions attractive to the enterprise customer, up to now. As an alternative to a 3000 solution, Xserve has its best chance in the education sector. Yes, Virginia, there is a 3000 presence in education, both K-12 and higher ed.)

But thanks deserve a list today, so here's ours. Have a second helping tomorrow, with Top 10 Things to be Thankful for in 2006 and 2007.

Top 10 Reasons to Be Thankful for Your 3000 Experience, circa 2006:

10. Developed a stronger sense of faith in inertia, five years and counting into migration era
9. Earned migration expertise to use now as well as later, no matter which platform you choose
8. Entered the marketplace of the $5.00 enterprise-grade HP 3000 server
7. Found vendors who draw their 3000 business plans well beyond HP's 3000 lifespan
6. Discovered new use for comfort in using the command line
5. Evaluated a replacement to outperform PA-RISC CPUs, after 11 years of waiting for Intel-HP project to mature
4. Opened the door to a vast warehouse of applications on target platforms
3. Cut support costs by two thirds while making a Transition by using third parties
2. Watched your vendor offer and then polish a multiple-operating-system technology with virtualization
1. Felt smart about your investment in a server with the greatest value in market's history — and more satisfaction about being part of the market writing a historic tale of migration and transition.