Does anyone take HP seriously as a modern software company? Although I haven't looked into their operations and financials, my impression is that they sell plenty of servers (going on the Compaq legacy); a certain amount of ill-regarded desktops, laptops, and peripherals; probably lots of scientific equipment like oscilloscopes, gas chromatographs, etc.; and networking hardware. Of course there are also printers, but their once-wonderful reputation has dropped precipitously since the 1990s.
HP's software division is actually doing pretty well except for Autonomy. Of their other recent acquisitions, Vertica is doing great, ArcSight is doing pretty well, Fortify (where I work) is doing pretty well.
But HP Software accounts for only 3% or 4% of HP's revenue.
HP desktops and networking hardware is good. I don't know about their laptops but they were horrible 4 or 5 years ago. Their printer division has been resting on its laurels for almost a decade and its not clear if the hardware is any good because the software that ships with HP printers is SO bad its impossible to say.
I print a few pages a week, scan something occasionally, and almost never fax, but I like to have the option to do these things. When I but a cheap-ish all-in-one printer, I specifically avoid HP. My expectations for cheap-o printers are low, but the last two HP printers felt way too flimsy, they installed too much bloatware, and on the last one I could never get the scanner to work. I've had much better luck with Brother and Epson products.
While their consumer and low end stuff is pretty crap, Their top end line of workstations (Z-series) and laptops (Mobile Workstation) are pretty good. We use them at work and they are certainly no worse than anybody else and better than most.
