“Last week, at the launch of Compaq’s 32-processor AlphaServer
GS Series, InformationWeek editors had an exclusive interview with
president and CEO Michael Capellas. Since taking the reigns of the
company last year, he’s had his work cut out for him. Continuing
losses in the company’s commercial PC business, aggressive
competition from direct vendors such as Dell Computer, and a brain
drain that has hit both the executive ranks and key departments
such as engineering have left many questioning the company’s
long-term future. But Capellas says he’s optimistic that Compaq’s
troubles are mostly behind it and that new products, along with new
partnering initiatives, will restore the company’s luster among
customers and Wall Street investors alike.”
“…InformationWeek: To date, we haven’t heard
a lot from Compaq about Linux. Dell seems to be promoting it as a
viable option for PC servers, and IBM is pitching it for the
high-end. From Compaq’s point of view, where does Linux fit in the
market?”
“Capellas: Linux to me is still a play on
the edge of the Web. There will be volume, it will play in certain
spaces, which is really on the low end, being a departmental or Web
server and maybe moving into the caching world. ProLiant with
Linux is gaining significant share. But to move Linux into the
enterprise space will take a huge amount of investment around
system manageability, load balancing, and being able to optimize
batch runs. So we’re really not betting end to end on Linux.”