[Info-vax] OT: HP restricts firmware upgrades to only those on warranty.

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2014-02-12 18:48:20 +0000, BillPedersen said:

> Well interestingly it is supposedly only Proliant:

FWIW, firmware access for Itanium Integrity Servers is already under 
lockdown, AFAIK and AFAICT.   Having just gone through a firmware 
download for an rx-class box, I had to use a valid HPSC account to just 
access the EFI firmware disk images. This download required the same 
sequence as needed for downloading OpenVMS patches.  An anonymous 
download of the ISO was not permitted.

FWIW, there've also been updates to the following postings since 
originally posted:
http://h30507.www3.hp.com/t5/Technical-Support-Services-Blog/Customers-for-life/ba-p/154423 

http://www.zdnet.com/hp-to-begin-charging-for-firmware-updates-and-service-packs-for-servers-7000026110/ 


Some related reading on revenues in the general (not necessarily 
server-specific) PC business, too:
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jan/09/pc-value-trap-windows-chrome-hp-dell-lenovo-asus-acer 



-- 
Pure Personal Opinion | HoffmanLabs LLC