On Thu, 10 Feb 2005 11:59:23 -0600 (CST), Mike Miller
<mbmiller at taxa.epi.umn.edu> wrote:
> According to c|net news, the day Fiorina/HP bought Compaq was "a day of
> infamy" in the company's history.  I suppose that has little to do with
> OpenVMS.
> 
> We'll see what happens with a new CEO at HP.  We don't know what they'll
> do with OpenVMS, but I envision them keeping it going unless they are
> operating at a loss.  If they can offer help with transitions from OpenVMS
> to UNIX/Linux, they might retain more customers than if they make it
> equally easy for their customers to leave for a different service
> provider.  They should be able to capitalize on loyalty.  If they do
> nothing to aid in transitions away from OpenVMS, then why won't current
> OpenVMS customers dump HP for another company?  With the current OpenVMS
> customer base continuing to erode, they'll have to cut their losses
> someday.
> 
> What are your views?

Not OVMS-centric, but I think HP is probably better off without
Fiorina. I read a pretty good article on her/her style of
management/strengths/weaknesses in the Wall Street Journal this
morning, and they likened her to Steve Case (AOL) and Steve Jobs
(Apple). The difference, I think, is Case and Jobs had, have
[respectively] good ideas and business sense. The only thing I can
associate with Fiorina is the Compaq merger, which I wouldn't be
surprised if she didn't have much to do with it.

I hope the next HPaq overlord has a vision; HP is the only big PC
company I can think of that pays attention to design and aesthetic
when designing a product. That gives them an edge, in some circles,
over white-box retailers (including the Gateways and Dells, who
innovated the industry by making their white boxes black).