HP sets work, reports schedule into 2009
November 20, 2008
HP has confirmed that its second advisory to the 3000 community will be posted next week. These reports will address issues about the vendor's end-game for active 3000 operations. Support continues through 2010, but the 3000 labs, as well as nearly all operations unrelated to support or migration advice, go dark next month.
What's more, the dimming of lights will begin early in December, pretty much on the Winter Solstice. By the darkest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, HP will be off for the year-end holidays, not to return until the week of Jan. 5. The company notified employees last week it would extend its normal week-long shutdown for the holiday to two weeks, to "achieve significant operational savings." Employees can either use vacation time or take the days unpaid, but the company will shut down for the back half of December.
The shutdown may be playing a role in the timetable for what HP's e3000 business manager Jennie Hou has called the final communique on 3000 matters other than support. Hou targeted January as the date for the third of three advisories about HP's disposition of post-2010 issues. MPE/iX source code licensing remains un-addressed.
The HP 3000 advisories are being posted on Hewlett-Packard's HP e3000 Web page, and the vendor has also been known to include an e-mail to 3000 newsgroup readers around the world when the news breaks.
Migrating 3000 users will also want to track this news, since HP's decisions about operations and intellectual property will have an impact on unfinished migration project time-lines. Interim homesteading, a step for many 3000 sites on the move, may be affected by HP's policies. Homesteaders, of course, will be most interest in any developments on HP's release or licensing of 3000 materials.
HP's told us we'll have a briefing soon on this month's advisory, so check back on here to see our review of what the vendor has decided, once the news goes public.