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HP Becomes a Platinum Member of the Linux Foundation
who_stole_my_kidneys writes in about how HP has gained a seat on the Linux Foundation's board of directors. "Snagging a first-class upgrade might empty out the contents of your wallet, but be glad you're not trying to buy your way to the Linux Foundation's top table. With a strategic investment of $500,000, Hewlett Packard has just become a platinum member of the body, alongside companies like Intel, Qualcomm and Samsung. In exchange for all that cash, HP gets a seat on the Foundation's board of directors and will have a say in how to advance the foundation's aims — and hopefully give Open webOS a gentle push, too."
According to wikipedia, in 2011 HP was worth about 130 billion dollars. They probably spend 500k on [i]toilet paper[/i] in a year.
I don't think that meets the HP bar for a rounding-error.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
It's practically nothing for HP! Just guess how much to have a voice on other OSs.
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Lets get donating. Can we get 50% of Slashdot folk on the foundation one at a time.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
AFAICT, Linux developers don't follow any agenda but their own -- each individual does whatever he or she wants (or is told to do by his or her employer), Linus' lieutenants accept any patches that seem both safe and useful, and Linus integrates whatever he gets from his lieutenants that seems safe and useful.
And none of them appear to pay any attention to anything the "Linux Foundation" says. So what does joining this body give HP, other than an opportunity to make some press releases?
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
My $.02 thinks within 10 years, HP will be dead.
First they embraced Linux, now they've extended $500,000 towards it, gaining a seat on a Linux council. What was that third E again?
Between a closed iOS controlled by Apple and a seemingly non-heterogeneous and sometimes controlled by the carriers Android OS, is WebOS the only valid alternative?
Can HP succeed where RIM failed? I'd like to see iOS, Android and WebOS each get around 30-35% userbase, in order to keep each other from taking over. The last thing we need is another OS with 90%+ userbase, no matter which one it is.
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
Linux: Now with Super Sweet Extra Junkware. Brought to your by HP Partners.
With blackjack and hookers...
signature is pants
If HP are in charge, it must be time to fire 20% of the Linux Foundation workforce.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
Even better, once it fails altogether, they will give it to the community in an Open Source Project!
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
It occurs to me that HP has seen Windows 8... Has seen consumer reaction to it. Has seen M$ trying to build their own hardware, and has seen the success of Android and iPad.
Basically M$ had the world by the balls because of the Windows infrastructure. Now they are:
o Building an OS that is fundamentally incompatible with that infrastructure.
o Screwing their business partners by building their own hardware.
HP (and everyone with a clue) knows M$ ALWAYS screws up everything they touch. (We have already seen this ... Apps already disappearing on the new surface. The OS taking most of the system resources.) .. and maybe .. just maybe has figured they better look for a better future. Maybe we just might see HP and maybe someone like Ubuntu partner to produce a reasonable alternative to Windows 8. I mean given the availability of Chrome, Skype, and Libre' Office. Ubuntu might be as compatible with Windows as Windows 8 is... If the users and businesses REALLY HATE the horribly ugly and dysfunctional Windows 8 systems... Maybe HP can say ... here buy this instead and it MIGHT just catch this time.
Of course... I don't much like the "new" (can something two years old still be called new?) Ubuntu desktop either, but I think it beats Windows 8.
HP looks like it would have only 2 reasons to muck around w/ Linux - WebOS and Itanium. Since WebOS has been cut loose & opened, HP has no stakes in its future, particularly if it's going w/ Windows 8 on a Medfield or Hondo.
HP's only other reason would be the Itanic, which it refuses to abandon, even though Intel, for all intents & purposes, effectively has. Right now, only Debian actively supports the platform on the Linux side, while FBSD and NBSD do so on the BSD side. So if being a member of the foundation enables HP to salvage what it can for Linux/Itanium, that would be the only justification.
Quietthey are a member we are now suppose to like them.
Perhaps in GPL 4, we will blindly accept loopholes that favor HP. Just like how GPL 3 did for IBM
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
apparently I din't sold my HP Presario laptop for nothing..