HP to open Linux competency center in Bangalore, Dec 06, 2004

In a bid to boost Linux solutions development, HP would be opening a Linux competency center in Bangalore next year.

Struggling with its HP-UX business, Hewlett Packard is now eyeing the Linux space with its 'Linux for the Real World' strategy showcased at the Linux Bangalore/2004 event.

Sun Microsystems' high-profile president and chief operating officer Jonathan Schwartz has struck a raw nerve with his inflammatory Weblog entries which has led to Hewlett-Packard sending a letter of demand to Sun to put an end to the commentary.

HP has confirmed a letter was sent earlier this week demanding Schwartz stop using his blog to comment on HP's strategic direction.

When small companies announce they’re putting Linux OS on a computer it makes news. When they announce they’re putting it on a laptop it’s even bigger news. Now you’re beginning to realize how big a deal it was when computer giant Hewlett-Packard announced they were selling a laptop with Linux inside.

Hewlett-Packard is now taking orders for their nx5000 business notebook computers with Novell’s SuSE Linux 9.1 installed. I’ve happy to report that the combination is a winner.

Mindful of the emerging shift to the inexpensive Linux platform among local businesses, the Philippine subsidiary of technology behemoth HP has struck an agreement with a Malaysian server software maker to come up with a server package targeted for small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

HP will supply Motorola with a Carrier Grade Linux version of Debian, as part of a long-term deal announced yesterday. HP chose the free, non-commercial Linux distribution over commercial alternatives in order to expedite feature additions, a company spokesperson said.

Expanding upon a long-term relationship, HP and Motorola today announced a multiyear agreement under which Motorola plans to incorporate HP technologies into its CDMA and iDEN network infrastructure offerings.

The resulting platforms in Motorola's Radio Access Network will provide mobile operators with telecom network infrastructure technologies. Globally, mobile operators strive to generate new revenues and reduce network costs by replacing network elements built on proprietary technologies with modular, industry-standard products.

Today, we look at HP's StorageWorks Scalable File Share (HP SFS), and how it is likely to be delivered.

HP SFS is HP's implementation of Lustre and is on track for delivery in the third quarter of this year. Like all Lustre implementations, it is fully Posix-compliant and is designed to service Linux clusters running applications that require fast data access across a large number of nodes. It should be viewed as a strategically important part of HP's overall vision for a "storage grid," along with HP's StorageWorks Reference Information Storage System (RISS), announced a few months ago.

The open source community needs fewer licenses and the large number of software licenses used to release open source code is becoming a significant issue for developers and users, said a senior Hewlett-Packard Co. executive speaking at the Linuxworld Conference & Expo here Tuesday.

"A lot of people don't realize that today there are dozens and dozens of open source licenses," said Martin Fink, HP's vice president of Linux. "The number has reached 52 open source licenses and will likely be 55 by the end of the week"

In a sign the Linux operating system may be gaining traction beyond servers and other back-room systems, Hewlett-Packard Co. said Tuesday it will be the first major PC maker to ship a business notebook computer pre-installed with the open-source software.

The HP Compaq nx5000 will feature Novell Inc.'s SuSE Linux and support a CD burner, a DVD and media player, wireless connectivity and the OpenOffice software suite. It will start at an estimated street price of about $1,140 -- about $60 less than the basic model outfitted with Microsoft Corp.'s Windows XP Professional operating system.

Hewlett Packard will later today unveil new products and services to extend its support for Linux at the LinuxWorld conference in San Francisco.

The vendor will expand its thin client t5000 desktop workstation range into Linux territory for the first time, and will extend support for Linux on Integrity servers configured beyond four-way and open out its reference architecture to include open source software.

Hewlett-Packard is including the Linux operating system in its fastest servers for the first time, to court large companies that are trying to cut computing costs.

Hewlett-Packard began running Linux, which is gaining as a cheaper alternative to Microsoft's Windows, on its full line of servers a year earlier than planned, said Martin Fink, vice president of Linux at Hewlett-Packard. Servers run Web sites and data networks.

A two-year old memo from HP executive Gary Campbell to other HP execs has been wending its way around the backrooms of the Internet this past weekend. One of the places it showed up was in the NewsForge submission bin. We held off publishing the memo until we verified its authenticity and gave HP a chance to respond.

The memo -- its full text is provided later in the story, along with HP's response -- briefly explains a patent cross-licensing deal between HP and Microsoft. By itself, that's not a big deal, especially since it was sent two years ago. But the memo asserts that "Microsoft will soon be launching a patent-based legal offensive against Linux and other free software projects." Leaders in the open source community have been warning of such attacks for some time. The memo reveals there may be very good reason for the worry.

With new PCs offering more computing power than a single user needs for basic work such as exploring the Internet or creating documents, Hewlett-Packard is now pushing a desktop machine that includes four monitors, keyboards, and mice. The Mandrakelinux-equipped machine can be used by four users at one time.

The quad computer, called the HP 441, is being aimed first at the education market in developing countries, where keeping hardware costs down is critical. The machines can be equipped with Intel Celeron or Pentium 4 processors and come with at least 512MB of RAM, a 40GB hard drive, a CD-ROM drive, and four specialized graphics cards.

Hewlett-Packard is set to announce plans Tuesday to expand its support for open-source software.

The computing giant will certify and support MySQL, the leading open-source database program, and JBoss, a popular Java-based application server, on HP's industry standard servers.

Under the agreement, both MySQL and JBoss will join HP's partner program and work jointly with HP on testing and engineering support. The companies also will co-operate on customer support.

HP has unveiled its latest business desktop PC, which offers companies the choice of Mandrake Linux 9.2 and Microsoft Windows XP Home as the default operating system.

The firm described its HP Compaq Business Desktop dx2000 as a simple, low-cost PC designed to meet the "basic computing requirements of price-sensitive business users".

Hewlett-Packard Co. says it is yielding to large clients' demands and expanding Linux distribution, a decision that could force Microsoft to reconsider some of its corporate pricing for Windows.

HP announced a wider partnership on Wednesday with Novell Inc. and plans to package its SuSE version of Linux with computers bound for corporate clients.

'What's interesting is the possibility it will give Microsoft the impression that it's actually in a competitive market,' IDC analyst Roger Kay said. 'It would act like a competitor rather than a monopoly and use price as a competitive tool.'

Hewlett-Packard Co. is putting its weight behind personal computers that run the Linux operating system, the No. 1 personal computer and computer printer maker said on Wednesday.

Palo Alto, California-based HP said it will work with Novell Inc. , which sells a version of the Linux operating system, to ensure that its business customers can use the fast-growing software on its desktop and notebook computers by providing support and testing.

HP is touting its new line of PCs as a simplification of its PC strategy that will give customers a larger selection that meet a variety of business needs, from high end to low end.

The HP Compaq Business Desktop dx2000 includes an Intel Celeron or HyperThread-enabled Pentium 4 processor with speeds of up to 3GHz. Retailing at about $389 with an up to 80GB hard drive, it has GB of double data rate (DDR) SDRAM and a choice of optical drives. Users can also choose between Microsoft's Windows XP or Mandrake Linux.

Hewlett-Packard has begun selling Linux PCs in 12 Asian countries.

The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company plans to tout the Asian Linux machines Tuesday, the same day the first Open Source Business Conference begins in San Francisco. The systems will run Turbolinux's software, a version of the open-source operating system based on Novell's SuSE Linux, and are geared for business buyers, HP said in a statement.

HP's desktop models, the dx2000 and cd5000, were announced--barely--last week. In that news release, HP avoided touting the Linux option, saying that the systems were available with Microsoft Windows "or alternative operating systems." In interviews, though, HP said the models came with MandrakeSoft's version of Linux.

HP has supposedly been selling MandrakeSoft Linux on the desktop for a while but it's been so quiet about it that for all intents and purposes it's been a stealth operation.

But now that the desktop Linux hype meter is registering new highs, HP has decided to raise the decibel level.

It says it's got two new Linux desktops for the North American SMB market. One is the first of a new basic 2000 series, the HP Compaq Business Desktop dx2000. The company figures the street price of a Celeron model will be $389 to start. The Hyper-Threaded Pentium 4 unita will be pricier.

Hewlett-Packard Co. said Thursday that its Linux-related revenue was more than $2.5 billion in 2003, a figure that it said places it in the top tier of companies vying for leadership in the rapidly growing market for the freely available operating system software.

Linux is an operating system that can be copied and modified freely, and is now moving upstream into more complex computing needs at corporations, said Nick Collins, director of marketing for Linux at Palo Alto, California-based HP.

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