This extract from the article that Wirt posted says it all and is the most
important point made:

"The only reason for making a big strategic move like this is to gain
leadership," said Michael D. Capellas, the former chief executive of Compaq,
who is now president and chief operating officer of Hewlett-Packard.

The Hewlett-Packard strategy is to become the leading supplier of
industry-standard technology to corporate data centers.  Industry standard
computing typically means the technology of personal computing --
Microsoft's Windows operating system or the Linux operating system, running
on Intel microprocessors.

************************

HP "INVENT" and innovation  --  indeed!

* To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, *
* etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *