HP names Linux luminary to senior post [CNET, eWEEK]
Dec 4, 2000 — by Rick Lehrbaum — from the LinuxDevices Archive — viewsHP has announced that longtime Linux evangelist and developer Bruce Perens has joined the company as a strategic advisor for Linux and other open-source initiatives. Here are two stories about this news, one from Stephen Shankland of CNET's News.com, and one from ZDNet's eWEEK . . .
Stephen Shankland, editor of CNET's News.com, writes . . .
“. . . HP has changed the name of its Open Source and Linux Operation to the Linux Systems Operation (LSO). It's the second name change in less than two years, but this time the group will get its own programmers and financial responsibility, said LSO general manager Martin Fink.”
“Luminaries such as Perens — who has experience with both programming in the Debian version of Linux and advocacy efforts such as the Open Source Initiative — are hot commodities among Linux companies. For example, Linux seller Red Hat employs Alan Cox, Stephen Tweedie and a number of other top Linux programmers, while Caldera Systems just lured John Terpstra away from rival Turbolinux.”
“But up to now, such luminaries generally haven't worked from within traditional companies . . .”
Peter Galli, of eWEEK, writes . . .
“Hewlett-Packard Co. announced late Monday that longtime Linux evangelist and developer Bruce Perens has joined the company as a strategic advisor for Linux and other open-source initiatives.”
“Mike Ballmer, director of marketing for HP's Linux system operations, said in an interview that this was the first time a large corporation such as HP had brought a high-profile Linux evangelist into such a senior management position. 'This move in no way indicates that we were lacking in the Linux arena and that we are simply bringing in Bruce to get us up to speed with our competitors,' Ballmer said. 'Rather, as Linux became increasingly pervasive across the company, we realized how much we needed to bring someone in-house who was a great engineer but who also had credibility in the open-source community and could hear their voice' . . .”
This article was originally published on LinuxDevices.com and has been donated to the open source community by QuinStreet Inc. Please visit LinuxToday.com for up-to-date news and articles about Linux and open source.