HP to report on source licensees
January 27, 2009
Even after the vendor gave the green light to source code licenses for MPE/iX, Hewlett-Packard refused to detail many specifics of what a licensee would receive from HP. At least a list of licensees will be released by mid-2010 for the source code agreements, the vendor now says.
“Given the successful negotiation of agreements with one or more third parties, HP will publish the names of those licensees in the first half of 2010,” it said in a statement on Jan. 22. The source licensees, who will get read-only reference access to some portions of the HP Fundamental Operating System (FOS), IMAGE and other subsystems, will be posted at the www.hp.com/go/e3000 Web page. But only when HP finalizes agreements with the companies.
HP said it hopes to “assist customers in making decisions about how to meet their technical support needs” once HP ends its 3000 support operations.
Even though HP will announce these companies which have negotiated read-only reference use of MPE/iX by mid-2010, the licenses forbid third parties to use the source-level MPE/iX information for support services until January 1, 2011.
The end game for requesting any 3000-related software from HP will arrive even sooner.
Customers won’t be able to order working media for FOS, PowerPatches or a System Load Tape for a 3000 after September 2010, even though the vendor will work to deliver the media to customers on Mature Product Support through the end of 2010. “Processing and delivery time may vary,” HP said in its statement.