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Maybe I'm just not as knowledgeable as the elite of the hackerati, but I haven't noticed HP doing anything relevant in at least 10 years. These days everyone I

Maybe I'm just not as knowledgeable as the elite of the hackerati, but I haven't noticed HP doing anything relevant in at least 10 years. These days everyone I know codes on a Mac. Most bulk order desktops I see are Dells. I ask seriously, with no intention to troll: what is HP good for these days?

maxxxxx 9y ago
My work laptop is a HP and actually not that bad.
daxorid 9y ago
For those of us who hate OS X and prefer to work on Linux, the HP Spectre line runs most modern distros just fine out of the box.
- marvel_boy 9y ago
  Is not MacOs a Unix[1]? [1]https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/1489/is-mac-os-x-unix https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/1489/is-mac-os-x-un...
  - daxorid 9y ago
    Yes, but: 1. The UI is horrible and not amenable to sufficient customization. Xfce, bspwm, and i3 are all substantially better from a user experience and getting-things-done standpoint. 2. The availability of tooling for basically everything other than graphics design or video editing is significantly worse than for Linux.
    - s73ver_ 9y ago
      The availability of tooling is just fine. You may need to compile from source, but that shouldn't be a big deal. Otherwise there's also MacPorts, Homebrew, and fink for pre-built packages. The UI thing is entirely subjective.
    - alexnewman 9y ago
      Totally agree with all of this. Also it's getting more and more closed every day
skrebbel 9y ago
This article isn't about the laptop and printer manufacturer, it's about a gigantic enterprise software consultancy.
- PerryCox 9y ago
  Yep, HPE still has their MyRooms product that comes to mind. I imagine that is something that still makes money.
- planteen 9y ago
  The also still make enterprise hardware (servers, storage, networking).
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
ecshafer 9y ago
Hp does a lot of servers, switches, blade systems, and plenty of other Enterprise equipment. As well as all of the different management software that runs them. They are also a major open stack contributor. Your point of view is too common here, people only look at the consumer products and have no knowledge of operations.
- murph-almighty 9y ago
  Something tells me that even that will get a little shaky as the public cloud grows, unless they nab a contract with Amazon/Microsoft/Google to provide servers for their cloud services.
HateInAPuddle 9y ago
They are still huge in the server market.
richardknop 9y ago
Enterprise. Basically horribly overpriced clunky systems for back offices of non tech companies. For example CRMs or any custom proprietary stuff, usually involving lots of Java and XML, integrations with other horrible enterprise systems from other players in the field like Oracle, SAP etc. It's really hard to understand this from HN startup / open source / Go/Rust/NodeJS bubble but most of IT is enterprise and it's the reason why companies like HP, Dell, Oracle, SAP are making billions of dollars even though to average HN poster paying for any of their horrible products seems crazy. Edit: and as somebody mentioned also selling all sort of server / networking stuff
- nsxwolf 9y ago
  If you can't understand why enterprises don't just hire a couple engineers to rebuild everything in Go/Rust/NodeJS and save millions of dollars in enterprise software expenses, you probably really are in a bubble.
  - richardknop 9y ago
    I can understand it. Just commenting on what I suspect is majority HN view. Lot of people here are from startups or from Silicon Valley etc. I'd also like to mention massive waste of money in enterprise IT though. I have seen big enterprise companies buy licenses for products from a consultancy company which costs tens of millions per year and it never ends up being used ;) Rewriting everything in a hipster / HN favorite language is obviously naive but there is a lot of money being wasted now in enterprise IT that could be saved and used more efficiently (like R&D and innovation). Enterprise is area ripe for disruption imho.
    - rwmj 9y ago
      To some extent, SaaS is the disruption. Which companies run their own email servers or CRM? Quite a few now use GApps (ugh), SalesForce or similar.
      - richardknop 9y ago
zero_one_one 9y ago
They also create several workstations used quite extensively in the video editing world, along with other power-user oriented industrial uses
- ausjke 9y ago
  HP Z800 workstation is great for me, though not video editing.
  - zero_one_one 9y ago
    If you don't mind me asking, what are you using the horsepower for? Is it in use for day-to-day operations?
    - ausjke 9y ago
      build machine that is, my build normally takes 1-4 hours on my PC, on Z800 it can finish in 20 minutes with 12 cores and 48GB DDRs.
dagw 9y ago
The higher end HP Z series workstations are incredibly solid and popular (if a bit pricy) especially among people running heavier engineering software or high end video editing. And everybody I know that needs a portable machine to run AutoCAD on has a Zbook. But this is about HPE which is the company that sells Servers, networking equipment and enterprise "Solutions", not the company that sells computers and printers.
pascalxus 9y ago
Someone above mentioned that they do defense contract. From what I understand, once you get something like that with the government, your pretty much locked in and get vast amounts of revenue repeatedly year after year. The government, can't just switch to another provider, because often times the provider needs to go through some big expensive review process.

maxxxxx 9y ago

My work laptop is a HP and actually not that bad.

daxorid 9y ago

For those of us who hate OS X and prefer to work on Linux, the HP Spectre line runs most modern distros just fine out of the box.

marvel_boy 9y ago
Is not MacOs a Unix[1]? [1]https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/1489/is-mac-os-x-unix https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/1489/is-mac-os-x-un...
- daxorid 9y ago
  Yes, but: 1. The UI is horrible and not amenable to sufficient customization. Xfce, bspwm, and i3 are all substantially better from a user experience and getting-things-done standpoint. 2. The availability of tooling for basically everything other than graphics design or video editing is significantly worse than for Linux.
  - s73ver_ 9y ago
    The availability of tooling is just fine. You may need to compile from source, but that shouldn't be a big deal. Otherwise there's also MacPorts, Homebrew, and fink for pre-built packages. The UI thing is entirely subjective.
  - alexnewman 9y ago
    Totally agree with all of this. Also it's getting more and more closed every day

skrebbel 9y ago

This article isn't about the laptop and printer manufacturer, it's about a gigantic enterprise software consultancy.

PerryCox 9y ago
Yep, HPE still has their MyRooms product that comes to mind. I imagine that is something that still makes money.
planteen 9y ago
The also still make enterprise hardware (servers, storage, networking).

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

ecshafer 9y ago

Hp does a lot of servers, switches, blade systems, and plenty of other Enterprise equipment. As well as all of the different management software that runs them. They are also a major open stack contributor. Your point of view is too common here, people only look at the consumer products and have no knowledge of operations.

murph-almighty 9y ago
Something tells me that even that will get a little shaky as the public cloud grows, unless they nab a contract with Amazon/Microsoft/Google to provide servers for their cloud services.

HateInAPuddle 9y ago

They are still huge in the server market.

richardknop 9y ago

Enterprise. Basically horribly overpriced clunky systems for back offices of non tech companies. For example CRMs or any custom proprietary stuff, usually involving lots of Java and XML, integrations with other horrible enterprise systems from other players in the field like Oracle, SAP etc. It's really hard to understand this from HN startup / open source / Go/Rust/NodeJS bubble but most of IT is enterprise and it's the reason why companies like HP, Dell, Oracle, SAP are making billions of dollars even though to average HN poster paying for any of their horrible products seems crazy. Edit: and as somebody mentioned also selling all sort of server / networking stuff

nsxwolf 9y ago
If you can't understand why enterprises don't just hire a couple engineers to rebuild everything in Go/Rust/NodeJS and save millions of dollars in enterprise software expenses, you probably really are in a bubble.
- richardknop 9y ago
  I can understand it. Just commenting on what I suspect is majority HN view. Lot of people here are from startups or from Silicon Valley etc. I'd also like to mention massive waste of money in enterprise IT though. I have seen big enterprise companies buy licenses for products from a consultancy company which costs tens of millions per year and it never ends up being used ;) Rewriting everything in a hipster / HN favorite language is obviously naive but there is a lot of money being wasted now in enterprise IT that could be saved and used more efficiently (like R&D and innovation). Enterprise is area ripe for disruption imho.
  - rwmj 9y ago
    To some extent, SaaS is the disruption. Which companies run their own email servers or CRM? Quite a few now use GApps (ugh), SalesForce or similar.
    - richardknop 9y ago

zero_one_one 9y ago

They also create several workstations used quite extensively in the video editing world, along with other power-user oriented industrial uses

ausjke 9y ago
HP Z800 workstation is great for me, though not video editing.
- zero_one_one 9y ago
  If you don't mind me asking, what are you using the horsepower for? Is it in use for day-to-day operations?
  - ausjke 9y ago
    build machine that is, my build normally takes 1-4 hours on my PC, on Z800 it can finish in 20 minutes with 12 cores and 48GB DDRs.

dagw 9y ago

The higher end HP Z series workstations are incredibly solid and popular (if a bit pricy) especially among people running heavier engineering software or high end video editing. And everybody I know that needs a portable machine to run AutoCAD on has a Zbook. But this is about HPE which is the company that sells Servers, networking equipment and enterprise "Solutions", not the company that sells computers and printers.

pascalxus 9y ago

Someone above mentioned that they do defense contract. From what I understand, once you get something like that with the government, your pretty much locked in and get vast amounts of revenue repeatedly year after year. The government, can't just switch to another provider, because often times the provider needs to go through some big expensive review process.