[rdb3]

The Penguin Ping.

Wanna be Penguified? Just holla!

Got root?

[Nick Danger]

HP's competitors will use this firing, at least for a while, to insert a little FUD into the buying decisions of UNIX shops where Hewlett-Packard has a bid on the table. Nobody can tell what this firing really means, and it might mean a strategic shift by HP away from linux. If I'm the IBM or Dell salesman, I'll make sure my linux customers know about this.

It will be interesting to see if IBM picks him up as a Fellow. In better times, the VC's would grab him as a "celebrity executive" for one of their start-ups, but things are pretty cold in that sector right now.

[dighton]

"If Gates doesn't own 100% of everything, the terrorists have won."

;-)

[old-ager]

To HP: good move. Now license .NET for HP/UX.

[Liberal Classic]

Hewlett-Packard's direction in the mid-range to large scale server systems has been adrift for quite some time. In the mid 90s HP announced they were going to end production of their PA-RISC harware platform in favor of Merced, and likewise end HP-UX in favor of some Intel-flavor of Unix, such as Solaris on Intel or SCO. At that time HP was the favored choice for running large relational databases, such as Oracle and Informix. This turned out to be a very costly decision for HP, when shorly thereafter all their customers started buying their competitor's offerings when the 64-bit Intel platform was delayed. It was only a few months until HP publically reversed their position, and said they would continue to sell PA-RISC and HPUX. Since then, however, HP has not been able to regain the share in this marke it lost to Sun and IBM.

Therefore, it doesn't suprise me that HP has been vacillating about Linux. They have been having an identity crisis for some time. Of all the major computer companies, IBM has gone the farthest in adopting Linux in their products. I don't find this particularly suprising, since I am sure IBM learned a hard lesson from Microsoft's betrayal.

[Big Bunyip]

This may of interest, from Business Week, "Microsoft's Prices May Cost Gates Dear.": http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/sep2002/tc2002094_8960.htm