HP Says Goodbye To Windows, Starts Development Of A Linux Based OS

June 12, 2014
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called Microsoft a direct competitor, late last year. And now at her annual customer conference this week, Whitman confirmed that HP was working on a brand new device called “The Machine”, and not only would this new device bring around some new technologies like a new type of memory, but will also be powered by a brand new operating system. A brand new operating system! No, we are not talking about Windows 9 here — HP is now building a completely new OS, based entirely on Linux. And it is to be installed on the majority of devices that the company sells in the future. It is becoming clear that HP is moving away from the Wintel ecosystem. This is what Whitman had to say about partnerships with Microsoft and Intel:

“Our partnership, the three companies, it was the defining partnership of the last industry of the last 30 years, but sometimes 30-year marriages, they need a little rejuvenation. HP’s traditional highly profitable markets face significant disruption.”
Significant disruption, alright. Sure, it still remains to be seen whether the new operating system that HP is creating has what it takes to put up a concrete challenge to Windows, but I guess we will find out soon enough. In the meantime, keep the comments flowing. What do you guys and girls think about this noteworthy move?]]>

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Mike Johnson is a writer for The Redmond Cloud - the most comprehensive source of news and information about Microsoft Azure and the Microsoft Cloud. He enjoys writing about Azure Security, IOT and the Blockchain.

All Comments

  • Wow, good luck HP. I wish them the best, but I fear they are making a mistake. They do not have my confidence with the new OS. Getting into such a crowded market with seasoned competition can be very is difficult. Going up against industry giants such as Apple, Microsoft and Google (Mac OS/iOS, Windows/RT/WP, and now even Android/Chrome OS) with their legions of followers dedicated to those ecosystems is even worse. On the Linux side you have smaller developers with their iteration of the OS with RedHat, Suse, Ubuntu and the like to compete with.
    Haven’t HP tried “their own” OS approach on the tablets with the Web OS (which was very promising)? As soon as the competition hotted up they quit and went with Android and Win8 on their tablets.
    Again, I wish them luck, they just do not have my confidence…yet.

    pirate78 June 12, 2014 8:44 am Reply
    • Exactly, doesn’t inspire much confidence. Luckily, HP have the server market to fall back on, unlike some other hardware makers, so even if they fail here, it might not affect them as much.
      Let’s see. This is a pretty big step, all said and done.

      Fahad Ali June 12, 2014 9:13 am Reply
    • It’s gonna be another BlackBerry playbook adventure of suck.

      Jason Deveau June 12, 2014 6:05 pm Reply
      • Yeah, sure seems like this, unless HP does some real magic in terms of both hardware and software.

        Fahad Ali June 12, 2014 7:56 pm Reply
  • First of all, not brand new OS, but a Linux fork. Then after what they did with WebOS, I will not hold my breath.

    colea June 12, 2014 10:38 am Reply
    • Nothing brand new under the sun these days, colea! But yeah, true, Linux fork, it is. And also true, the WebOS adventure.

      Fahad Ali June 12, 2014 7:55 pm Reply
  • HP needs to die a slow death

    Ray C June 12, 2014 12:39 pm Reply
    • Well they are bleeding, what with the layoffs and all.

      Fahad Ali June 12, 2014 7:57 pm Reply
  • All hail os/2 Warp 5. New hotness!

    Misterbear Fapp June 12, 2014 1:03 pm Reply
    • Throwback to the classic age, Fapp!

      Fahad Ali June 12, 2014 7:57 pm Reply
  • HP Says Goodbye…
    “I am just going outside and may be some time.”

    Rumin8 June 12, 2014 1:15 pm Reply
    • One way to put it. 😀 But then, what about the customers? Still, should be interesting, whichever way this pans out.

      Fahad Ali June 12, 2014 7:54 pm Reply
  • Amazon is going to do better with Kindle than they’re going to do with this

    Ray C June 12, 2014 7:10 pm Reply
    • Well HP’s record with custom software is nothing special. Borderline abysmal, really, but somehow they think they can get away with it.

      Fahad Ali June 12, 2014 7:52 pm Reply
  • I have an HP Chromebook that has become my favorite notebook PC. If their Linux based OS is anything close to as good as the Chromebook approach, they will do quite well!

    Robert Miller June 12, 2014 8:55 pm Reply
  • “And it is to be installed on the majority of devices that the company sells in the future.” This begets a question, which OS will be on those none majority devices, it not windows, as they have said goodbye to it? AND dose devices mean PCs here or just what?

    Mike Greenway June 13, 2014 8:34 am Reply
  • About time too! HP computers are biggest piece of crap ever. Sorry to hear that Linux users will be saddled with them from now on, but at least it gets HP out of the hair of the rest of us. Good riddance!

    Chris Birkbeck June 13, 2014 8:23 pm Reply
  • The most logical Linux project for HP would be a RHEL clone along the lines of Centos or Scientific Linux. That would serve their home and corporate customers well and keep them away from bleeding edge support issues.

    Ralph Ellis June 15, 2014 3:47 am Reply
  • You know, it’s really quite easy to kill Microsoft with Linux:
    1) A better office suite than Open Office
    2) Easy app development kit just as good or better than Visual Studio/.NET Framework
    3) Online storage like One Drive
    4) Has to look good (fonts, etc.; XP looks better than the best FREE Linux distros currently out there)
    Meet those 4 requirements and I don’t see why anyone would want to stick with M$ and their bloated Windows ecosystem….
    Sometimes M$ just needs a little competition to make them get their crap together and produce a good, FAST OS! XP was their golden era…

    Collectivepitch June 15, 2014 1:13 pm Reply
  • It’s about time. I absolutely hate how Microsoft tries to control its customers and Windows users. I wish Meg and HP the best of luck and look forward to getting out from under the 30+ year Microsoft screw.

    Wings_42 June 19, 2014 10:53 pm Reply
  • Why not just use one of the available Linux distros? We don’t need yet another operating system.

    Sparten1 June 24, 2014 3:38 pm Reply

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