Re: What then must we do?

["Bryan J. Smith" <b.j.smith@ieee.org>]

On Wed, 2004-02-04 at 23:33, Jonathan wrote:
> BTW, Doc was right about the Elite Group Laptops (Lindows laptop
> manufacturer ). He told me just because they say that they will offer
> Linux on laptops does not meant it will happen any time soon. They
> replied to my query about when they would have Linux compatible laptops:
> ___________________________________________________
> Hi,
> There is no ETA for the product. Please check back later.
> Sales
> ___________________________________________________

Dell was a perfect case study.

Intel funds Dell's R&D more than Microsoft.  Intel and the entire
semiconductor engineering industry is largely Linux-based.  They wanted
a 1st tier OEM to start selling Linux desktops and portables.

Microsoft would have none of that.

So Microsoft changed the terms of its agreement with Dell to force
Windows certification on these new, standard Linux option systems.

The result was that you couldn't buy Linux with anything but the slowest
processor, least amount of memory and disk and many other shanagins that
Microsoft came up with.

People wouldn't buy the Dell Linux pre-installed versions, but just
bought the Windows versions.  I know, I did a survey in my own company
at the time, among others.  The reason why they did not sell is because
_no_one_ only wanted 128MB of RAM -- _especially_ engineers who often
ordered 1-1.5GB, the maximum!

So Dell and Intel gave up.

That _was_ a mega-conspiracy by Microsoft, one that personally pissed me
off.  The consumer wanted a product that Microsoft _prevented_ the OEM
from selling.

But do I want the government involved?  Hell no.  Consumers should put
their money elsewhere than Dell, they _could_ have stood up to Microsoft
with Intel's backing.  Dell has Intel in its corner more than anyone
else.

All other OEM R&D is primarily funded by Microsoft, not Intel.


-- 
Bryan J. Smith, E.I. -- Engineer, Technologist, School Teacher
b.j.smith@ieee.org



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