Hewlett Packard (HP) has ditched plans to ship the Linux-based media hub demonstrated at last year's Consumer Electronics Show by erstwhile CEO Carly Fiorina, reports Ars Technica via the Wall Street Journal. The company earlier abandoned a similar design announced in 2001.

HP's most recently abandoned Linux media hub was to target users interested in living room computing without the PC-like complexity of products based on Microsoft Windows Media Center Edition (MCE), Fiorina said at the CES keynote in which she announced the device. The hub was to support high-definition (HDTV) video, and incorporate a digital cable set-top box and a dual-tuner DVR (digital video recorder). It was also slated to have a built-in DVD burner capable of printing labels on DVDs. And, HP planned to offer services such as program guides and content services around the hub.

HP's earlier 2001 “Digital Entertainment Center,” meanwhile, was to boast a whopping 40GB hard drive, along with video playback, music burning, and CD recording capabilities. It also was slated to have a futuristic vacuum flourescent display (VFD), in addition to TV out.

HP's Digital Entertainment Center, circa 2001
Despite HP's decision to nix its Linux media hub, the company plans to soldier on in the consumer electronics (CE) marketplace, offering devices such as WiFi-enabled HDTVs and digital cameras in the year ahead, Ars Technica reports. However, reporter Eric Bangeman questions the logic of HP's ongoing CE push, suggesting that the failures of Gateway and Dell point to a need for a strong “brick-and-mortar” channel, in order to win CE customers.

Gone Windows?

Another explanation for the demise of HP's Linux-based media hubs could be that HP has switched OS horses, moving instead to Microsoft's Media Center PC OS. HP announced in October that expected to begin shipping its latest Windows-powered Digital Entertainment Centers in time for the 2005 year-end holidays.

HP's new z556 and z558 Digital Entertainment Centers run Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005

The z556/z558 are based on 3.0/3.2 GHz Pentium 4 processors, with 512MB/1GB DRAM, each expandable to 2 GB, and are equipped with 250/300 GB internal drives. They include a rich complement of audio/video, ten USB ports, WiFi, Gig-Ethernet, and two Firewire interfaces.

The Ars Technica story can be found here, while the original WSJ story can be found here (subscription required).

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