May 23, 2007 5:07 AM PDT
NASA enlists HP in multibillion-dollar tech contract
HP announced Wednesday that it has been awarded a contract from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to provide a range of hardware for federal government agencies. This includes desktop PCs, workstations, and blade PCs enabled to run Unix and Linux operating systems; as well as printers and servers.
The contract lasts seven years and may be worth up to $5.6 billion for HP. It's known as Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement IV (SEWP IV) and aims to offer any federal agency--not just NASA--low prices, minimal surcharges, and efficient ordering procedures.
Previous SEWP contracts with NASA, the first of which was inaugurated in 1992, were worth a total of $620 million.
Caroline McCarthy, a CNET News staff writer, is a downtown Manhattanite happily addicted to social-media tools and restaurant blogs. Her pre-CNET resume includes interning at an IT security firm and brewing cappuccinos. E-mail Caroline. 
Microsoft.
NASA and the US Government are going Linux.
And businesses who serve them will follow.
Ba-bye Microsoft...