The biggest two problems HP created a few years back were 1) taking Carly Fiorina as the CEO, and 2) buying/merging with Compaq. HP makes totally excellent printers! For this current day, I'd say that's their nîche -- it's what they do well. In the past (and still in the right "community," they're well known for their scientific instruments). Unfortunately, two rotten apples don't make a sweet tasting pie. Merging Compaq's struggling proprietary computer market with HP's struggling, proprietary computer market gave them one big, way-to-proprietary, struggling computer market. When you think of: Dell you instantly think computers. When you think of: HP you instantly think printers... and then, well, yeah, they do make other stuff too. It's all about marketing and making bad decisions. Why HP thought they should/could compete on the desktop computer front (when IBM couldn't even pull it off), I don't understand. I won't touch their computer stuff though. It's too quirky and too proprietary! You'd even have to totally hack the case just to use if with some other board. > Here is a message from MLUG (Missouri) two months ago: > > http://mlug.missouri.edu/list-archives/discussion/2004-08/msg00138.php3 > > Jon King is really a smart guy - professor with degrees from Yale and CMU > - and I have a high regard for his nonexpert opinions. So of course this > gives me another reason to be concerned about continuing to invest in HP > products such as VMS. > > They have recovered partially from their devastating August nose dive... > > http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=HPQ&t=3m > > ...but the future of any corporation is uncertain. This adds much to the > appeal of open-source software. > > Mike > > -- > Michael B. Miller, Ph.D. > Assistant Professor > Division of Epidemiology and Community Health > and Institute of Human Genetics > University of Minnesota > http://taxa.epi.umn.edu/~mbmiller/ > > _______________________________________________ > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > Help beta test TCLUG's potential new home: http://plone.mn-linux.org > Got pictures for TCLUG? Beta test http://plone.mn-linux.org/gallery > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list > _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota Help beta test TCLUG's potential new home: http://plone.mn-linux.org Got pictures for TCLUG? Beta test http://plone.mn-linux.org/gallery tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list