Hacking HP3000 Model Numbers 26
tmjva writes "A hardware hack reported last Wednesday on the HP3000-L list proved that a newer version of Hewlett Packards's MPE operating system can be loaded on HP's more venerable machines. Normally this is impossible according to HP (the installation message declares this.) This also brings up some important legal questions as convictions and lawsuits have been handed down before for converting HP3000 systems. Since the HP3000 is sold no more and support ends in 2008, HP may decide to
show no interest. Then this hack may allow those who are clinging to old machines the ability to upgrade their OS. Those with newer models may also be able to upgrade their intentionally crippled HP3000 processors to equivalent HP9000 speeds as shown in this table."
One moral of the story... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:One moral of the story... (Score:3, Insightful)
Remember, this technology is 20+ years old, and there wasn't much competition in the mid-range database market back in the day. There are lots of companies who have done the same around IBM big iron, luckily enough have done so that IBM still provides them with an upgrad
Re:One moral of the story... (Score:2)
Most vendors(OS, APP, HW) limit the number of combinations they support for practical reasons. In most cases that is just stated in realease docs etc. that software xyz is supported on devices X, Y, Z. Putting in blocks to explicitly make it impossible to install on any but the supported devices sounds like an overkill and a bad idea, but I would not automatically assume it is a conspiracy to make more money. It might be just a matter of how much resource they are willing to spend on
Re:One moral of the story... (Score:2)
Re:One moral of the story... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:One moral of the story... (Score:3, Insightful)
At some point, the rubber's got to meet the road, and if your application is in any way "real" (read: has to meet performance thresholds), you're going to have to take advantage of the underlying system. To do this is to tie yourself to it in some fashion. Nowadays it's f
Re:One moral of the story... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:One moral of the story... (Score:2)
5000 customers in 2000. (Score:2)
We actually talked about Open Sourcing MPE. I think it sunk because 1) the MPE folks were afraid that IBM would use t
Re:Okay.. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Okay.. (Score:3, Funny)
Are we talking HP Visualize C3000s here? (Score:1)
No, not the workstation... (Score:3, Informative)
It was nasty. Particularly coming from a UNIX background, MPE/iX just seemed ass-backwards.
Re:No, not the workstation... (Score:2)
I know Unix. Therefore, !Unix is bad.
Welcome to Slashdot. Come on in. Meet the folks. They're just like you.
Re:No, not the workstation... (Score:1)
DMCA? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:DMCA? (Score:1)
It's sitting right next to my Xerox! (Score:2)
What a wonderful world! Everything lives FOR EVAH!
Something not quite right here (Score:2)
Look up "exhaustion of rights" sometime.
What? (Score:1)