HP3000

[Mark Davidson]

On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 5:16 PM, William Donzelli <wdonzelli at gmail.com> wrote:
>>    Between 1986 and 1988, I worked on a whole slew of HP3000s, from the
>> Series III to the Series 70.  They were popular in the business environment,
>> especially in COBOL shops.  Where did they end up?  You can find loads of
>> DEC equipment on Ebay, even IBM System 34, 36 and AS/400s, the occasional
>> HP1000, but the only HP3000 I recall seeing in recent years was a single
>> Model 37.
>
> You answered your own question.
>
> DEC made loads of minis (PDP and VAX).
> IBM made loads of minis (S/34 and S/36).
> IBM made extra sized loads of AS/400 minis (more than any other minicomputer).
> HP did not make loads of 3000s.
>
> I think it is a simple population thing.
>
> --
> Will

I subscribe to the 3000 mailing list, and there seems to be one other
complaint... licensing the OS.  I am no expert on the matter, but I've
gotten the impression that HP can be a real bear to deal with when it
comes to licensing the OS for users.  It simply can get too expensive
for a hobbyist to run MPE...

Trust me, I'd love to have a small 3000 at home and if one ever shows
up, I'll snap it up if I can.  They just seem to be pretty rare on the
used market.

Mark