Oops! HP Shoots Other Foot!

Posted on December 23, 2013 by Robert Pogson

HP suffered some setbacks a year or two ago as a result of shipping some client devices the world was not ready to embrace. Now they are taking a big mis-step with servers. They are restricting firmware patches to paying customers… This will hurt many small IT businesses, small organizations running on used equipment, refurbishers, and folks doing in-house maintenance etc.

It certainly would make it difficult for some of the organizations I worked for to use HP’s servers. Check out some of the comments by others. e.g. “In the end we will have this fixed, tested and working before the rest of staff get back from the New Years holiday. The only ones who will know be the people who sign off on my overtime, my girlfriend who may be spending the week of new years by herself and anyone who mentions HP to me in the next couple of years.”

It is likely HP will end up with fewer customers although those may pay more. It remains to be seen whether this improves the bottom line. Servers are periodically replaced and there are always those who will supply firmware upgrades at a lower price than HP’s subscriptions. I know HP makes good solid servers. I may be able to pick up some cheaply after this takes effect.

This is yet another example of why FLOSS is vital for end-users even those unaware of its existence. If the firmware were FLOSS, HP would indeed have customers and not slaves. Strange HP doesn’t get that. They’ve been around long enough to know better.

“HP will only release updates in return for an in-warranty product serial number or an active Service Agreement ID.”

See HP clampdown on 'unauthorised' server fixing to start in January.

About Robert Pogson

I am a retired teacher in Canada. I taught in the subject areas where I have worked for almost forty years: maths, physics, chemistry and computers. I love hunting, fishing, picking berries and mushrooms, too.
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6 Responses to Oops! HP Shoots Other Foot!

  1. dougman says:
    December 24, 2013 at 3:52 pm

    You sold? LOL….

    No, more like you brokered a deal between the manufacturer and buyer. Nothing wrong in that to be honest, I don’t play that game.

    I prefer to have customers/clients buy the hardware I tell them, which squeezes out the middlemen and upsets quite a few of them mind you, while saving the customer/client money. Money can be made else where, I’m sure you smart enough to figure out how that is done.

    Furthermore, deploying Linux is a cost-saving approach that many enjoy and unfortunately some do not realize it until its far to late. That was the point of the M$ triad, Office – Exchange – SharePoint. Once a SMB becomes a victim, they stay a victim with M$ Lock-In strategy.

  2. DrLoser says:
    December 24, 2013 at 2:16 pm

    Hey Peter!

    In the seasonal spirit,, wotcha me luv! Let me apologise ahead of time, Mr Douglas Smith. I’ll try again, O worthless bit of spit:

    Hey, Mr Smith!

    That’s a rather insightful comment.

    Glad you quoted it — oh well, you didn’t. (Not a difficult thing to do.) Never mind: there’s a smidgeon of a possibility that you’ve committed it to memory. I live for these small smidgeons.

    Obviously you never done contracts.

    Are you nuts, or just delusional?

    Not for myself, obviously. But weirdly enough, I have “done contracts.” Although I wouldn’t quite specify them that way. Ten million dollars would do you? Selling two million dollars of hardware in a weekend?

    Done that, Mr Smith. Done that.

    I don’t buy servers, clients and customers buy them as I do NOT play the middle-man game and charge a mark-up,

    In which case, why mention an aversion to HP?
    It’s a choice you should present to your customer (with the relevant warnings). And, um, what’s this about a “mark-up?”

    Of course you have a mark-up, Douglas Smith. Of course you do.

    Every businessman does. A mark-up is basically what keeps honest businessmen in profit. But then, you’re not an honest businessman, are you? Presumably you don’t call it a “mark-up.” I’d love to hear what your alternative term is. Go on. Amuse us all.

    I’m not greedy like some businesses I have seen in the past.

    Nobody here has accused you of being “greedy,” Mr Smith. Incompetent, yes. A leech on innocent customers, almost certainly.

    And to be perfectly honest, I think you should at least lean towards the general advice here and get a High School Equivalency, as opposed to boasting about your unlettered ignorance. Just a thought (as a concerned friend).

    The last server chassis was a Rockwell for a 15-bay storage server, with a Supermicro motherboard.

    And now we’re finally getting to the point, and if you were honest you would have started with this point.

    Where? For whom? Did you choose it, or did the second party choose it?

    You’re full of it, Mr Smith. You’re full of it. An honest answer, please. Just for once.

  3. dougman says:
    December 24, 2013 at 1:30 pm

    Hey Peter!

    That’s a rather insightful comment.

    Obviously you never done contracts. I don’t buy servers, clients and customers buy them as I do NOT play the middle-man game and charge a mark-up, I’m not greedy like some businesses I have seen in the past.

    The last server chassis was a Rockwell for a 15-bay storage server, with a Supermicro motherboard.

    As I told your buddy Wind-Bag, kindly make a donation to my bit-coin wallet (QR code on the website) or send me your IP address, so I can block you and save you from stabbing your eyes out.

  4. DrLoser says:
    December 24, 2013 at 12:15 pm

    <blockquoteWhat a bone-headed maneuver, won’t be looking at HP anymore.

    Interesting, Dougie. When was the last time that you purchased a server, the rack-space, and the connectivity?

    For yourself, of course: not for some branch of the military.

    You’ve never done it once, have you? Not once. You’ve never shelled out for a server of any kind in your life.

    Now, clearly, I have very little evidence to go on. But here’s a few samples:

    * Your site is actually registered in Panama. Nothing wrong with that, but let’s face it, you probably don’t concern yourself with the provisioning of servers.

    * Your registry domain ID is equally opaque: 1384866290_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN. Yeah, that sounds like somebody who’s about to buy servers by the ton.

    * Your nameserver is NS1.SITEGROUND212.COM, and in all honesty I don’t think that server belongs to you, as such. So, no profit for HP there either, is there?

    In short, can you give a single good reason why HP would care about your silly cheapskate snotty little opinion? (Other than the fact that you will no doubt be bruiting it around the Professional Toastmaster Circuit, of course.)

    You can’t can you?

    Incidentally, JET-COMPUTING.COM runs out on the 21st January. As somebody who loves and admires you, and considers you a slightly retarded friend, I’d recommend you get on that right now.

    And while you’re getting on that, could you fix your site? It looks like something out of the dinosaur age. I’d hate to see you lose custom because of a broken web site.

    Dell and Supermicro it shall be from now on; I was just looking at these yesterday.

    http://www.supermicro.com/products/nfo/chassis_storage.cfm

    (72) 4TB Western Digital Reds = ~288TB per server.

  5. oiaohm says:
    December 24, 2013 at 7:02 am

    Return of Mainframe licensing of servers.

    This stuff is kinda predictable.

  6. dougman says:
    December 23, 2013 at 9:37 pm

    What a bone-headed maneuver, won’t be looking at HP anymore.

    Dell and Supermicro it shall be from now on; I was just looking at these yesterday.

    http://www.supermicro.com/products/nfo/chassis_storage.cfm

    (72) 4TB Western Digital Reds = ~288TB per server.

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