Again, the 3000's owners own a longer view
April 11, 2014
Heartbleed needs a repair immediately. Windows XP will need some attention over the next three years, as the client environment most favored by migrating 3000 sites starts to age and get more expensive. XP is already "off support," for whatever that means. But there's a window of perhaps three years where change is not as critical as a repair to Heartbleed's OpenSSL hacker window.
Then there's MPE. The OS already has gone through more than a decade of no new sales. And this environment that's still propping up some business functions has now had more than five years of no meaningful HP lab support. In spite of those conditions, the 3000's OS is still in use, and by one manager's accounting, even picking up a user in his organization.
"Ending?" Tim O'Neill asks with a rhetorical tone. "Well, maybe MPE/iX will not be around 20 years from now, but today one of our people contacted me and said they need to use the application that runs on our HP 3000. Isn't that great? Usage is increasing!"
Pondering if MPE/iX will be around in 20 years, or even 13 when the end of '27 date bug surfaces, just shows the longer view the 3000 owner still owns. Longer than anything the industry's vendors have left for newer, or more promising, products. My favorite avuncular expert Vladimir Volokh called in to leave a message about his long view of how to keep MPE working. Hint: This septuagenarian plans to be part of the solution.
Volokh took note of our Fixing 2028 update awhile back. "It's interesting that you say, "We've still got more than 13 years left. Almost every user who I've told you about has said, 'Oh, by then, I'll retire.' My answer is, 'Not me.' I will be just 90 years old. You call me, and we'll work out something.' "
I invite you to listen to his voice, delivering his intention to keep helping and pushing MPE into the future -- a longer one than people might imagine for something like XP.
Why do some 3000 experts say a longer view seems like a good chance? Yes, one obvious reason is that they don't want to say goodbye to the meaningful nature of their expertise, or the community they know. I feel that same way, even though I only tell the stories of this community.
But there's another reason for the long view. MPE has already served in the world for 40 years. HP thought this so unlikely that they didn't even program for a Y2K event. Then the vendor assumed more than 80 percent of sites will be off in four years' time after HP's "we're quitting" notice. Then it figured an extra two years would do the job.
Wrong on all three accounts. Change must prove its value, and right soon, if you intend to begin changing soon. There's another story to tell about that reality, one from the emulator's market, which I'll tell very soon. In the meantime, change your passwords
1. If a website you use is vulnerable to Heartbleed; check here with a free tool, or it has been (list below).
and
2. It has now been repaired.
Here's a list of websites which were vulnerable, from Github. Yahoo is among them, which means that ATT broadband customers have some password-changing to do. That's very-short-view change.