HP Sets Record With $2.5B in Linux-Based Revenue (and other BREAKING TECHNOLOGY NEWS)

eWEEK ^ | January 15, 2004 | Peter Galli

[fight_truth_decay]

Hewlett-Packard Co. on Thursday will announce that it earned a record-breaking $2.5 billion Linux-based revenue in fiscal 2003, with its Linux services and solutions business posting a 40 percent rise over fiscal 2002.

While the revenue was derived from the sale of Linux-related products and services, the Palo Alto, Calif., company did not specify exactly what was included and counted as Linux-based revenue.

[antiRepublicrat]

You may call "the father of the GPL" an American, but I will call him scum.

Stallman is strange and acts like one of those overboard activits sometimes, but he and free software are American. What can be more to the American spirit than the idea of free software?

[ShadowAce]

IMO open source software like Linux gives U.S. trade secrets away by ....

WHOSE trade secrets? One of your main arguments against Linux was that is was written and controlled by FOREIGN nationals.

You really oughta get a consistant viewpoint and stick with it.

[TechJunkYard]

IBM and HP are giving their newest technology away into Linux, as I said above...

Yeah, like you'd know what IBM's and HP's newest technology really is. And putting the latest & greatest into open-source Linux. Suuuuuure.

.. and are unfortunately conceding their versions of Unix which are US standards. Both AIX and HP-UX are admittedly taking a back seat now.

News Flash: IBM is still improving and selling AIX and the hardware it runs on. And they're still eating Sun's lunch. And if traditional Unix is indeed slowly dying, I think you can thank all of your buddies at SCO for that.

[blowfish]

You seem to be under the impression that MS, IBM, Oracle, Sun are patriotic flag-waving American companies and the friends of the common citizen. The fact is that they are spread across the globe, and outsource jobs and capital at the drop of a quarterly earnings statement. I prefer to reserve my loyalty to people and business that might actually reciprocate.

[rdb3]

News Flash: IBM is still improving and selling AIX and the hardware it runs on.

Correct. One is waiting on me this coming Monday (AIX 5L). I tried hard to get them to look at this "e-server" project using strictly Linux, not AIX. The powers that be are huge IBM hardware and software fans.

I'm not really looking forward to it, but what are ya gonna do?

[TechJunkYard]

.. what are ya gonna do?

Yeah, really. SMIT is your friend. Very much like the good parts of the old LINUXCONF tool.

[CyberCowboy777]

Railing against Linux is pointless, in our Free Market people and organizations are allowed to buy and sell (or give away) legal goods and services.

You seem to think that my clients (small businesses) that are the backbone of the economy are worse off purchasing hardware and utilizing open source software. I just cannot see it that way. If I can decrease the cost of a project by 20% using a mix of open source and MS my clients have money to invest in more of my services, or buy better hardware or buy a new office chair. The point is that those savings in software will be spent in other areas of the economy, just not with MS. No big deal.

BTW - Open Source does not mean "free" exclusively. You will find that as the market grows more and more open soucre will be sold at 50% or more of current falling MS products - because while the "community" touts free exchange or ideas, they all need to eat and buy cars and so on.

Further - I am writing this from a W2K box, I own more than one W2K license. I also have a Fedora box and Open Office, which I personally do not like for a home PC much. They have a lot of work to do before Linux is as easy and intuitive as XP or W2K. People will pay for connivance, the only question is how high that price is, as MS is finding out.

No worries, the Market works.

[CyberCowboy777]

You are better off building a box or buying a Gateway or Dell and putting your favorite flavor of Linux on.

Compaq's are bad news. If it ain't a E-Machine causing some poor soul heartburn its a Compaq.

[CyberCowboy777]

The end to software and computer industries in the US will come from a lack of innovations. If we allow the industry to become the auto manufacturing of the '70s it will lose ground, but if we innovate, demand better products and not place all our eggs in one basket we will survive and thrive.

[theFIRMbss]

>While the revenue was derived from the sale of Linux-related products and services, the Palo Alto, Calif., company did not specify exactly what was included and counted as Linux-based revenue.

Press releases all
come with a shaker of salt.
After all, before

people stopped talking
about Java, companies
used to brag about

their commitment to
that... It's just corporations
and corporate games.

[CyberCowboy777]

If you like I can dig up the exact quote from MS stating that while Nethercutt is a great guy that they have given to before, the are supporting Murray for re-election.

Point blank and clear.

It means nothing though. I am not going to stop using MS where appropriate because of a campaign contribution or for a Penguin Messiah. What is best for the situation will be used, let them compete for my dollars. I'll pay more for a products that works and pay less for a product that will work - both are not always true of either Linux or MS.

[AFreeBird]

but, but, but... Linux is a commie OS according to B2K and his fellow sycophants, and giving away software will kill America, and sap our strength, and rob us of our preciuous bodily fluids, as surely as floridated water.

Companies can't make money on Linux.

[Dimensio]

You seem to be under the impression that MS, IBM, Oracle, Sun are patriotic flag-waving American companies and the friends of the common citizen.

He doesn't really believe that. He just dishonestly ignores the reality involved there because it doesn't help with his mindless Linux bashing.

[AFreeBird]

Ever heard of a SPARCstation? They didn't used to sell those at a loss.

One upon a time - true. But they have to have all that proprietary hardware. They stuck with S-Bus and didn't embrace PCI architecture until they were in decline. I've used Sparc's 5's 10' 20's Sparc II's were okay, and the Sun 450E server we had at work was fine, but way expensive. I could build a comparable system using Intel/AMD and off the shelf parts, add Linux, for a whole lot less.

[oceanview]

you can't innovate in an industry you don't have. we lost the consumer electronics industry to japan, there have been boatloads of innovations there over the past 15 years, all developed by the japanese and koreans.

[Golden Eagle]

Innovation only comes from R&D budgets, which only exist within proprietary software companies. Unfortunately those budgets are falling, and they won't ever be replaced by open source products because those products never innovate at all, but rather clone the original proprietary technology.

Linux - "it's like UNIX"
Lindows - "it's like Windows"
Samba - "it's like NT server"
OpenOffice - "it's like MS Office"
Ximian - "it's like Outlook"

Blah blah blah. There's no innovation in that junkpile, just cheap rip offs of the real products they are trying to immitate.

[oceanview]

I agree. US corporation aren't investing in any R&D, and what there is, is mostly being invested offshore.

[Dimensio]

Windows - "It's just like MacOS"

What were you saying about innovation? Oh, wait, that doesn't help your argument, so you'll wave your hands and pretend that it doesn't count.

[Salo]

Oh, I use a little of everything. GE hates linux - thinks it's tainted on account of Linus Torvald's parents being Communists. Won't use it even when it's the best solution. Says anyone that does is a communist. Just pointing out to him that his Redmond Emperor is naked.

I am not going to stop using MS where appropriate because of a campaign contribution or for a Penguin Messiah.

[Golden Eagle]

PC's go back just as far as Mac's. Not only were the software trees seperate, the hardware was separate too. I remember running 14" color EGA and laughing at my friends tiny B&W screen on his Mac. He did have a cool floppy, though. ;-)

The point is Microsoft and Apple BOTH pioneered the 'personal computer' industry, through their R&D budgets. Unix ran most of our high end servers, and software profits drove more R&D. Perhaps most importantly, that technology was held privately in America.

Now with Linux, all the R&D that goes into it is immediately via open source shared with the rest of the world, including our potential enemies. Of which certainly exist. Why Linux has secretly been chosen by "International Business Machines", who started all this by breaking their contracts and projects with Unix, is the ultimate question.