On 2/14/03 Craig Lalley wrote:

>  Since HP has given up the PA-Risc chip, why would they spend all their
>  time creating and maintaining a proprietary OS, when LINUX is free.
>  This doesn't seem to follow HP's new business model of low priced
>  commodity products.

>  I believe it was posted on this list an article where HP was pushing
>  RedHat to develop an Enterprise version of Redat to run on Superdome.

>  I too am strugling with the ideas of where to spend my energies.  What
>  is the life span of HP-UX.  (Maybe we can discuss something other than
>  Saddam or WMD, quite frankly no one has changed their opinions.)

>  So, what do people think?  Is there a future for HP-UX?

>  -Craig

Craig,

I believe that within the next 3 to 5 years that the state-of-the-art in
enterprise class OS will be LINUX.  Many governments around the world are
beginning to specify that open source (modern day codeword for LINUX among
other software packages) be used in any possible new IT projects.  That is
why Gates and company are running scared.  I even heard that he is
considering "price revisions" in his product line to combat market erosion
(familiar problem, yes?).

So, I believe that the future is clear.  A humble grad student from
Finland (I think) has started the whole world toward that one elusive OS
that we've been promised so long ago that can run on any manufacturer's
hardware (just about anyway).  And to think that this latest gift to
humankind (LINUX) is free for the taking.  It's pretty amazing what we
humans can do when we put our collective minds to it.

However, having said all of that wonderful stuff, we reach the reality of
life, in the here and now.  It still isn't certain "which LINUX" will
prevail.  Red Hat has alot of traction in the U.S. but I think Europe is
leaning toward SuSe LINUX.  Besides these two versions there are probably
two dozen or more other versions.  And the camps are starting to ramp up
around the world with different folks proclaiming that their version is
best.  Hopefully, this competition will be friendly and improve the LINUX
OS rather than causing more divisiveness in the world than there is today.

That's my take on this subject,

John Hornberger
Sr. Systems Programmer
SPX Global Information Services

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