“Wayne Caccamo is an MBA intent on helping Hewlett-Packard Co.
sell high-end computers to large businesses. Christopher Beard and
Alex deVries are Canadian computer programmers who are trying to
save the world with free software.”
“With Caccamo as point man, Hewlett-Packard is helping Beard,
DeVries and some of their friends — a loosely knit band called the
Puffin Group — adapt an operating system known as Linux to work on
H-P computers. In doing so, the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company is
giving the Puffins free hardware, numerous H-P internal documents,
virtually unlimited access to key company engineers, but not one
red cent in cash.”
“The arrangement between the $50 billion Hewlett-Packard and the
shoestring Puffin Group is a marriage between the stodgy world of
big computer companies and a form of capitalism being hatched by
Linux zealots around the globe.”