HP has fired Bruce Perens - the leading Open Source evangelist and former Debian project lead - for Microsoft-baiting, he says.

"It came after a long, long warning," Perens told the New York Times. "The thing that I did that was most hazardous for HP is the Microsoft-baiting I tend to do."

Perens joined HP as Open Source adviser less than two years ago. At the time, he was given carte blanche to continue expressing his own opinions (http://newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=00/12/05/1145237&mode=thread) -- both to the public, and to Hewlett-Packard".

According to Perens, the departure was amicable. But he says it was 'inevitable, following HP's takeover of Compaq. Post-merger, HP is the world's biggest buyer - and by extension, reseller - of Microsoft products.

Also in recent months, Perens has stepped up the anti-Microsoft pitch, as he acknowledges to the NYT. Last month, for instance, The Register published this essay penned by Perens - MS 'Software Choice' scheme a clever fraud (http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/26616.html).

Perens, 44, is talking to other firms about consultancy work. "Open source doesn't mean you take a vow of poverty," he told the NYT. He also intends to continue his work on behalf of the Open Source movement.

You can find him here (http://www.perens.com/). ®

NYT article (reg req'd) (http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/09/technology/09SOFT.html)