HP and Debian Linux may not sound like an obvious pairing, but on August 14 at LinuxWorld in San Francisco, HP announced that it has increased its Linux distribution support options for customers and will now support Debian Linux.
Specifically, HP will be supporting Debian Linux across its HP ProLiant and HP BladeSystem server lines. While Red Hat, Novell SUSE, the Asianux foundation of Miracle, Red Flag, and Haansoft remain HPs first choice of Linuxes for its customers, it has been working internally with Debian since the Linux communitys beginnings in 1995.
HP will provide Debian technical support for installation and configuration during a servers warranty period. The company, according to sources close to HP, will also offer “care packs” for Debian in the future. Care packs will essentially be service packs.
This support plan is not wedded to a particular Debian distribution. Debian Sarge will be the first Debian distribution to be supported. Etch, when its released, will also be supported.
The company also has no plans to sell, market, or certify Debian on HP hardware. So, why do it?