Hewlett-Packard will next week grant Linux status as one of the company's "strategic operating systems", according to a Reuters report.

To be honest, we thought HP had already placed the open source operating system alongside Windows NT and HP/UX, something it did last year, round about the time that IBM did much the same - but who are we to point out Carly and Co.'s mistake? Clealy, HP feels the world has forgotten that it's dead keen on Linux, and that we need reminding of this seminal fact.

And HP's motivation? "This was really driven by consumer need,'' Jim Bell, HP's general manager of open source and Linux operations, said. "Linux is a tsunami that is over-running the marketplace. It has spread like wildfire and we anticipate this is going to accelerate."

"Wildfire" is perhaps an unfortunate word to choose given the conflagration in Idaho, and the fact that no one's allowed to use it anymore since it’s a trademark of Wildfire Communications (see Compaq prevented from using Wildfire name). ®

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