HP to charge for server firmware updates starting February 19, 2014!
http://www.techienews.co.uk/976132/hp-charge-server-firmware-updates-february-19/
Sysadmins better go get their updates if you got any HP servers.
I heard about that and find it quite ridiculous. I own a few ProLiants for studying purposes for my college course and future degree, people like me can't afford to do this. As if the servers aren't expensive enough in the first place...
They are actually being lazy, and its much either for them to now neglect the older systems that are out of warranty. They kind of bit of more than they can chew by releasing more firmwares than they can support. It really shows up in their consumer laptop market too. You will find them coming out with new pavilion laptops every few month but its really all the same inside with slightly different parts. Bios, driver, firmware updates only seem to be updated only a few month after their release. Then it kind of goes the a graveyard.
Its probably a bit better for their business grade computers though.