No cracks in the wall, par J-L Gassée

GP <> · Tue Apr 23 21:45:01 2002

One suspects that Linux suffers from the same fealty to 
Microsoft's licensing strictures. Linux is the  culmination of 
30 years of development by the Unix community. Surely an OEM 
can't complain about Linux's quality or its price: It's good, 
and it's free. If Microsoft licensees are as free to choose as 
Microsoft claims they are, why isn't Linux factory installed on 
*any* PC? If you randomly purchase 1,000 PC clones, how many 
have any OS other than Windows loaded at the factory? Zero.

But what about all these announcements from companies such as 
IBM, Dell, and others? A few URLs are supplied here for your 
convenience:

    <http://www.dell.com/products/workstat/ISV/linux.htm>
    <http://www.compaq.com/isp/news_events/index.html>
    <http://www.compaq.com/newsroom/pr/1998/wa111298a.html>
    <http://www.hp.com/pressrel/jan99/27jan99.htm>
    <http://www.hp.com/pressrel/jan99/27jan99b.htm>
    <http://www.software.ibm.com/data/db2/linux/>

If you parse the statements, Linux is offered and supported on 
servers, not on PCs. Another IBM story is that installation is 
to be performed by the reseller on some PCs or laptops, not by 
IBM at the factory.

As an industry insider gently explained to me, Microsoft abides 
by a very simple principle: No cracks in the wall. Otherwise, 
water will seep in and sooner or later the masonry will crumble.

http://lists.essential.org/1999/info-policy-notes/msg00005.html

Comme c'est bizarre! Comme moi, Gassée constate
que Microsoft se fout pas mal du marché des
serveurs: elle y viendra en temps et lieu. Ce qui
lui importe, c'est que le desktop soit du tout
Windows.

GP