OpenSEA just announced that HP and Aruba have joined the Alliance. HP even indicated that it might bundle the supplicant in their PCs. There’s some fairly thoughtful analysis by Ric Turner at Computer Busienss Review here. All in all this bodes well for the Alliance and 802.1X in general. I look forward to having more members to announce in 2008!
In related news, the Open1X project just shipped 2.0.0 of the supplicant. It is now in feature freeze mode meaning the only new development to this branch will be bug fixes.
Technorati Tags: 802.1X, Supplicant
When you mentioned that HP might bundle the supplicant into their machines, what exactly did you mean?
It is with hope that HP will not go the DELL way of putting crapware on the new computers without asking customers if they want that bundle or not?
In DELL’s case thy do not ask (not really a problem for corporate customers who usally format and put their own configuration in) , but for home users they usally just turn it on and use it one they get it.
I’ve dropped a note to the HP OpenSEA rep in the hopes that he can clarify on this blog what he meant. I don’t have anything to add beyond what is in the articles I referenced. I too share your disdain for bloating new PCs with software the user doesn’t want (that’s why I run a Mac). I’d very much doubt HP will be going this route.
I’m pretty sure by HP they mean ProCurve, their networking division- they offer a NAC solution and Endpoing Integrity agent software. I glanced at the OpenSEA release and saw a quote from Kevin Porter, who’s the global product manager for their NAC.
-jj
Jennifer,
Is Kevin Porter thr product manager in the USA or the UK or in Ireland?