Dan the consultant - bit of an HP Fanboi?
Dan,
You're coming across, again, as a bit of a Fan Boi (we all are but you are meant to be objective). You haven't made any mention of the fact that apparently, true or not, Oracle claims Leo and Ray know Intel are killing the CPU but won't tell customers. Surely that is valid context to the discussion or do you want a one sided article.
Perhaps you should remind readers that HP's 2 "Big" partners, Microsoft and RedHat have pulled the plug on Itanium? You also say "I’ve been around a bit and have seen some pretty hard-core competitive tactics. But I can’t think of anything that sinks to this level."
Could you name a couple of customers who've told you this? Or in the best traditions of your reporting are you going to take HP at its word? (Whose CEO ran to Japan to avoid taking the stand despite his last company, SAP, under his leadership stealing Oracle IP. Larry is a hard and tough businessman yes, Leo is a known thief.)
Does Gabriel Consulting provide objective analysis?
El Reg needs objective journalists again who attack everyone (IBM, HP, Oracle, Microsoft, etc) equally, not this partisan rubbish which almost seems vendor sponsored. Bring back Ashley and rap Dan and Tim across the knuckles "I must try to be objective in my writing and write balanced articles - boot em all" 100 times boys