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).