"HP to Contribute webOS to Open Source"

William O'Higgins Witteman william.ohiggins-H217xnMUJC0sA/PxXw9srA at public.gmane.org
Wed Dec 14 18:08:23 UTC 2011


On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 01:57:40AM -0500, Kevin Cozens wrote:
>On 11-12-11 01:30 AM, D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:
>>A press release:
>><http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/hp-to-contribute-webos-to-open-source-nyse-hpq-1596936.htm>
>
>I find it interesting that, on the one hand, HP supports the Linux
>community while at the same time produces HP branded hardware that is
>not supported with drivers for use in Linux (ie. some of their
>scanners).

HP is a big, big company, and they have no idea what they do and don't
support as a monolithic enterprise.

They have had a revolving door of CEOs, each of which hewed to the adage
that an incoming CEO tries to change the company into something they
think they can manage.

Each CEO has tried to make big, strategic changes to the company, while
at the same time trying to deflect questions/concerns about their
incompetence/delusions/confusion about the market needs met and
unmet/misogynism etc.  The only divisions that make any sense at this
point are the ones that have kept their heads down, returned quarterly
profits, and were too complex (servers) or too boring (printing and
scanning) for the CEO to mess (not the word I'm thinking of, but
family-friendly) with.

HP and Linux is a complicated relationship - just like most
hardware/software/services companies and Linux.  The parts of the
business that really understand Linux support it, the parts that don't
show it contempt, and the middle group that knows that an easy PR win
can be made that might also hinder some competitors by giving away a
product that would have been orphaned anyway.

[If Android/Google falters by losing some mindshare to WebOS then HP/MS
win - at least in theory.  If it doesn't work it was still essentially a
free pawn to sacrifice.]
-- 

yours,

William

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