__/ [ Rex Ballard ] on Thursday 17 August 2006 00:44 \__
> billwg wrote:
>> B Gruff wrote:
>> > http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/newss/6298/1/
>> >
>> > It would appear that the Lenovo laptops will *not* ship with SLED
>> > pre-installed after all.
>
> It sounds like Microsoft may have been doing a bit of "arm-twisting" in
> the last few hours.
Preposterous! That can't be. I mean, let's look at what Novell's CEO had to
say.
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft Corp is using scare tactics to exert pressure on PC vendors
| not to explore the potential of desktop Linux, according to Novell
| Inc president and COO, Ron Hovsepian.
`----
http://www.commentwire.com/article_news.asp?guid=2044AB5A-59CA-4EC3-AD3F-73DF7BC4F8E0
(link now broken)
Ironically, that was just months ago. With Hovsepian's current position, I
doubt he will have made any such accusations. But it's there on tape!
> Linux Expo is running this week, and lots of vendors really want to let
> it be known that their machines are "Linux Ready".
> HP's financial reports came out tonight and it looks like their
> "Installed with Windows/Ready for Linux" strategy has paid of in
> premium profits and revenues. Keep in mind that HP was the first major
> OEM AMD-64 64 bit machines which were clearly NOT optimized for
> Windows, but were optimized for Linux instead. HP even announced that
> corporate customers could purchase HP mastered SUSE 64bit DVD
> installation media which had the latest drivers for SUSE 9.0 (SUSE 10.0
> had all of those drivers in their standard distribution). It was a huge
> coupe and HP captured a substantial increase in total market share as a
> result, and at much higher profit margins.
>
> Lennovo may have intended to ship machines with Linux preinstalled, but
> my guess is that Microsoft may have had some very quick discussions
> that probably should have been recorded, but probably weren't.
>
>> > My reading of this is that Lenovo will sell you a laptop with a *blank*
>> > drive, and that if you go get/install SLED, they will support you, *and*
>> > provide various drivers.
>
> Same as HP did last year. The T60p is one of their top of the line
> machines. It has up to 3 Gig of RAM (32 bit XP can only support 2
> Gig), has Dual-core Intel chips (XP home only supports one, XP Pro
> supports two, but dual-core not very well). It has a FireGL graphics
> card and 1600x1200 display (Windows DirectX calls have to be converted,
> which makes it slower than Linux XGL/OpenGL). The machine is offered
> with Windows as an appeasement to Microsoft, but it's actually more
> machine than XP can handle, and probably not really tweaked for Vista.
>
>> > On the one hand, not what I originally understood.
>> > On the other hand, a "guaranteed linux compatible laptop", with
>> > (presumably) a lower price tag than one with Windows?
>
> Actually, probably not. Keep in mind that the OEMs buy Windows
> licenses in mass bulk. They often buy as much as 50% more licenses
> than they actually use. They can't sell these licenses to anybody
> else, they can't used them after the expiration period (one year), and
> they can't use them in other lines or products. Whether it is shipped
> to you or not, you will have to pay for Windows as part of the purchase
> price. The price to OEMs is typically only $15-$30 dollars each
> depending on Microsoft's relationship, the kickbacks included, and the
> minimum commitment accepted.
>
> There are many VARs who do purchase these "Linux Ready" machines, but
> do not accept the licenses (even though they have paid for them), this
> allows the VAR to reconfigure the machine in a number of different
> ways, without being bound by Microsoft contraints. The end-user still
> has a legitimate OEM license, and usually some installation media, so
> they can either put windows back on, or add Windows to Linux as a Xen,
> VMWare, UML, or Bochs VM.
>
> Keep in mind that now that IBM has divested itself of their
> Desktop/Laptop operation, they can now purchase a few million of these
> machines and configure them any way they like as described above.
> There are already a number of other companies that do so.
>
>> > I would have thought that a laptop which is good for SLED is good for
>> > OpenSUSE, for example? In fact, they pretty-well say this.
>> > It's a (very) high-end laptop, and expensive, but:-
>
> In this case, you are probably correct. Some video cards offer
> "generic bitmap" drivers for the free versions of Linux, but offer
> highly optimized X11/XGL servers for commercial versions such as SLED.
> This is why I repeatedly reccomend that anyone wanting to configure a
> machine for Linux should purchase commercial versions of the software
> which include these enhanced but often "Binary Only" features.
>
>> > "Aggarwal said that the lack of pre-installation is really saving
>> > customers almost $200 per laptop"
>>
>> I would be suspicious, goat. Aggarwal may be picking your pocket while
>> patting you on the head. A T60p maxed out with storage, memory, and
>> video capability with XP Pro is priced a little under $2700 for the 15"
>> UXGA (1600x1200) TFT. He may be saying that you're saving that MS
>> money, but are you?
>
> I would guess that it's been a very interesting 48 hours for both
> Microsoft and Lennovo, and that it's likely to be a very interesting 15
> days for most of the major OEMS as Microsoft tries to do a bit more
> "Arm Twisting" to keep Linux off their retail laptops and desktops. I
> would hope that all of these communications are being very carefully
> monitored and recorded, because I smell a contempt of court ruling in
> the very near future.
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