I have met many HP computers, and have never met one that I liked.
Now I have a financial reason to recommend against them.
Many of you have probably noticed that HP is no longer a computer
vendor in the set of vendors available in the Custom Computer Orders
section of the MSU Computer
Store and I think it is probably for good reason.
From over 30 years of experience being responsible for maintaining
computers I have gained the opinion that I don't like
Hewlitt-Packard computers, which is disappointing because I have the
opposite experience with HP Laserjet printers and network switches.
I have been recommending against HP computers for many years because
I don't like all the junkware software that is installed on HP
computers and I don't like their tendency to configure hardware with
poor components like 5400RPM hard drives and then heavily promote
the computers as better than the competition.
The financial reason: On hp.com, instead of providing a means to
order tax exempt, they reimburse the credit card weeks after it is
billed. On behalf of a researcher I ordered a computer through
hp.com, and like Lenovo, the initial bill is with tax. However, the
really atrocious money grubbing thing they did was bill for the
computer a week before it is due to be shipped, and the bill
includes tax even though I went through the process for the order to
be tax exempt. I called customer service to get the order corrected
and their response was that they would reimburse the pcard for the
$30 tax weeks after it was billed.
I'm betting the purchasing department is offended by that practice,
so now I have a reason to tell researchers not to order HP computers
with more strong language.
-Stefan