(OT) From the Guess-They-Don't-Want-Our-Business Dept.

Bill Mullen moonmullen at attbi.com
Tue May 6 23:53:00 EDT 2003


On Tue, 6 May 2003, Jerry Feldman wrote:

> On Tue, 06 May 2003 13:32:42 -0400
> Jon maddog Hall <maddog at li.org> wrote:
> 
> > My belief is that this is a play to get all of their products that are
> > INTENDED to work on XP to be certified, making their life easier.
> > 
> > I don't think this applies to Linux things or Apple things.
> I would agree with that interpretation although many employees might
> interpret it differently. 

My concern is not software, but PC-compatible hardware; one would expect
that this could force vendors to focus their coding resources even more
exclusively on M$/XP support (including requiring costly certification)  
than they already do, and may, for many, squeeze out even nascent Linux
driver development efforts - especially if other retailers follow suit,
which is why I wouldn't be surprised at all to see M$ involved somehow.

Given their history, IMHO it hardly qualifies as paranoia to suspect the
Borg's insidious hand as likely to be operating backstage in this deal. As
so often happens, this is an idea they can sell to the retailer as being
of short-term benefit to them, and M$ then gains (more valuable) further
platform lock-in from all parties to the pact, even the unwilling ones. :(

-- 
Bill Mullen   moon at lunarhub.com   MA, USA   RLU #270075   MDK 8.1 & 9.0
"In communities where men build ships for their own sons to fish or
fight from, quality is never a problem." -- J. A. Dever



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