January 5, 2026
Servers don’t cry, sysadmins do
The last supported version of HP-UX is no more
Goodbye HP‑UX: geeks cry, Linux slides into the DMs
TLDR: HP‑UX’s last version just lost official support, marking the end of a four‑decade run. The community oscillates between heartfelt nostalgia, links to dupe threads, jokes about OpenVMS, and “move to Linux” pitches—signaling migrations ahead and the close of a storied chapter in enterprise computing.
HP’s house‑brand Unix, HP‑UX, has finally shuffled off official support, and the internet is in its feelings. Nostalgia is everywhere: veteran devs recall monochrome monitors and the days when HP‑UX sat beside AIX, SunOS, Ultrix, and IRIX like the coolest kids in the lab. One user even dropped a dupe link with the mood‑setting headline: “I’m sad” (link).
But the hot takes came fast. Some celebrate HP‑UX’s wild past—running on everything from in‑house CPUs to Intel’s ill‑fated Itanium—calling it a proto‑Linux moment before Linux took over routers and phones. Others clap back with pragmatic energy: SUSE swoops in with a “Natural Heir” pitch like Linux sliding into enterprise DMs. Cue the drama—nostalgics versus “just migrate” realists.
Comedy? Oh, it’s here. The thread lit up with jokes about jumping to OpenVMS on Itanium—aka leaving one sinking ship for another. There’s meta‑drama too: dupe policing, cross‑links to related threads (link), and a little side‑quest about EPIC Linux and T2 still keeping Itanium on life support, zombie‑style. In short: a four‑decade legend bows out, the community mourns, and Linux shows up with flowers—and a moving truck.
Key Points
- •HPE’s HP-UX 11i v3 (11.31) ended standard support on December 31, 2025, per HPE’s support matrix.
- •HP-UX now has “Mature Software Product Support without Sustaining Engineering” through at least December 31, 2028.
- •The last known HP-UX 11i v3 release (2505.11iv3) was issued on May 22, 2025 for HPE Integrity servers.
- •HP-UX’s long history spanned multiple architectures: HP FOCUS, Motorola 68000 (AT&T Unix kernel in ROM), and PA-RISC before settling on Intel Itanium.
- •Intel ended Itanium shipments in 2021; alternative Linux support for Itanium persists via the EPIC Linux project and T2 Linux, with GCC support led by René Rebe.