HP's been telling the community that 3000's life ends on Dec. 31, but there's plenty of evidence that's just a point of view, or a vendor's wish, rather than a fact. (Selling HP support for 2011, and no HP software or hardware failures wired to occur on January 1 are a couple of facts contrary to "end of life." This isn't Y2K, this time around.)

But one HP 3000 software supplier has announced a real 2010 deadline for running some of its products on computers including the HP 3000. Lund Performance Solutions has sent a message to customers to explain why Dec. 31, 2010 is a hard stop for running ClearView -- at least until Lund sends out a revised version of the product. The problem: A "permanent license" for the software expires on that day.

Lund Performance Solutions has become aware of an effective expiration date in our software licenses that affects your Lund software. Unfortunately, “permanent” licenses that have been created to-date will actually expire on December 31, 2010. Your Lund software will not continue to run after this date without a correctly updated license.

We are preparing a new software release for all of our ClearView-supported platforms that will be released with a new product code which will truly be “permanent.” Revised license codes for all of our MPE customers will also be sent to resolve the issue on the MPE platform.

Lund adds that it's using email to contact its customers about the issue. Those who are still on support can head to a Lund web page to make a formal request for an updated license code. Software written for the HP 3000 -- some of it crafted 15 years ago -- can run into end of life, but it's less of an issue for customers if the creators have remained in business. Funny enough, but that "remain on support" choice for customers makes it more likely that a vendor can remain in business to look after show-stoppers like this.