HP announces plans to destroy Microsoft Windows Moments after Meg Whitman, CEO of Hewlett-Packard, announced the company grand new plan to compete with the Microsoft Windows operating system, she was thanking Microsoft for being a major sponsor of the conference and inviting the company new CEO, Satya Nadella, on stage. Nadella joined Whitman and Intel new CEO Brian Krzanich for a fireside chat-style interview conducted by New York Times columnist and author, Tom Friedman. But just before Nadella joined via video conferencing, during Whitman keynote speech, CTO Martin Fink, head of HP Labs, showed off what HP hopes will be a game-changing new data center computer. It internally calling that computer The Machine. HP is creating a lot of new technology to build The Machine, especially a new form of memory known as memristors which wont lose data if the power turns off (also known as non-volatile memory). The Machine claim to fame is that it can process loads of information instantly while using hardly any power. HP wants this computer to replace the servers being used in today data centers. But it also hopes the tech will become the basis for the next generation of PCs. And The Machine will not use Windows. In fact Fink announced on Thursday that the company is working on a brand new free and open-source operating system and is inviting universities to help research and build it. He threw in a little dig at Microsoft when announcing the news, saying: We want to reignite in all of our universities around the world operating system research which we think has been dormant or stagnant for decades. On top of that, HP is working on a brand new operating system for The Machine based on Linux. And another one based on Android, Fink continued: We are, as part of The Machine, announcing our intent to build a new operating system all open source from the ground up, optimized for non-volatile memory systems. We also have a team that starting from a Linux environment and stripping out all the bits we dont need. So that way you maintain compatibility for apps. What if we build a version of Android? We have a team that doing that, too. Notice any operating systems not mentioned? Microsoft Windows. You might argue that it would be difficult for HP to build an operating system based on Windows since Microsoft doesnt freely share that code. Windows is not free and open source as Linux and Android is. You would be right. However, when Nadella and Krzanich were on stage, Whitman pointed out how all three companies have been doing joint R&D for 30 years. In other words, HP could be doing a joint development project with Microsoft if it wanted to. As Whitman said about the HP, Intel, Microsoft combo, Our partnership, the three companies, it was the defining partnership of the industry for the last 30 years but sometimes 30-year marriages, they need a little rejuvenation. That rejuvenation will obviously come in the form of Linux and Android. It not wholly surprising that HP is building a new computer that will extricate itself from Microsoft, and potentially from Intel, too, depending on who HP chooses to fabricate its new chip. Last year, Whitman called out Microsoft and Intel as competitors. After a disappointing quarter for the company PC business she told Wall Street analysts: HP traditional highly profitable markets face significant disruption. Wintel devices are being challenged by ARM-based devices. We are seeing profound changes in the competitive landscape. Current partners like Intel and Microsoft are turning from partners to outright competitors. Since then, HP has introduced new Windows 8 PCs. But it has also introduced new Google Chromebook laptops and an experimental new desktop aimed at businesses that runs Android. This is a bold move by HP. The ability to process large amounts of data with little energy consumption plus nonvolatile memory could be a game changer on the hardware side. Obvious benefits are longer life of mobile devices, more processing power on the device for things like speech recognition, instant on/off functioning, superior servers, removing most of the device cooling engineering, and lower energy costs for storage and server providers. There hasnt been a real hardware advancement in decades. As the article points out, this opens the door for a change in operating systems, and hp is clearly not interested in helping Microsoft, and prefers open source OSs. Intel also might be left out in the cold. If hp has the goods and delivers, this technology will become THE big data system, and take over the server world just for the energy savings alone. Pricing will be the adoption issue for consumer mobile devices. When the price points are attractive, the mobile phone and tablet suppliers will switch too. Nice tech advancement we all can benefit from. And, if u have investment money for speculation, hp stock could be a nice retirement plan. Since snubbing Microsoft seems to be the sport of tech royalty this year, shorting MS stock might be fun money too.