On Thu, 28 Dec 2006 20:56:33 +0000, Roy Schestowitz wrote:
> Microsoft 'killed Dell Linux' - States
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | The States' remedy hearing opened in DC yesterday, and States attorney
> | Steven Kuney produced a devastating memo from Kempin, then in charge of
> | Microsoft's OEM business, written after Judge Jackson had ordered his
> | break-up of the company. Kempin raises the possibility of threatening
> | Dell and other PC builders which promote Linux.
> |
> | "I'm thinking of hitting the OEMs harder than in the past with anti-Linux.
> | ... they should do a delicate dance," Kempin wrote to Ballmer, in what is
> | sure to be a memorable addition to the phrases ("knife the baby", "cut off
> | the air supply") with which Microsoft enriched the English language in the
> | first trial. Unlike those two, this is not contested.
> |
> | [...]
> |
> | Earlier memos described that it was "untenable" that a key Microsoft
> | partner was promoting Linux. Kuney revealed that Dell disbanded its Linux
> | business unit in early 2001. Dell quietly pulled Linux from its desktop PCs
> | in the summer of 2001, IDG's Ashlee Vance discovered subsequently, six
> | months after we heard Michael Dell declare his love of Linux on the desktop
> | the previous winter.
> |
> | Compaq was also mentioned in other memos, with Microsoft taking the line
> | that OEMs should "meet demand but not help create demand" for Linux.
> `----
>
> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/03/19/microsoft_killed_dell_linux_states/
>
> Keep this in your bookmarks. When the Microsoft apologists and trolls enter
> the room, just pass this on.
Other instances of M$ threatening OEMs are:-
>From 1997: PC makers 'threatened by Microsoft'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/14653.stm
>From 2004: An attempt to by M$ to stop OEMs selling "bare bones" machines.
(IMO it was a pseudo attempt to stop linux being installed.)
Microsoft gets green light to punish OS-less PC vendors
http://www.theregister.com/2004/01/20/microsoft_gets_green_light/
Related story from 2005:
Dell tired of sticker mania from Microsoft and Intel.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20050829-5253.html
Though it doesn't say so there, M$ (especially) refused Dell permission to
remove stickers from their *own* products!
> Earlier today:
>
> Court tells Intel to hand over foreign documents in antitrust case
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | In June 2005, AMD filed a massive antitrust lawsuit against Intel,
> | accusing the larger CPU maker of abusing its dominant position in the
> | worldwide PC market to prevent AMD's CPUs from making significant
> | inroads. The suit alleges that Intel customers like Toshiba, Gateway,
> | Dell, Hitachi, and others agreed to exclusive deals with Intel in
> | exchange for "cash payments, discriminatory pricing or marketing
> | subsidies conditioned on the exclusion of AMD."
> `----
>
> http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061217-8436.html
>
>
> General background:
>
> Jury Hears Microsoft Competition Suit
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | A judge on Friday told jurors they must accept as fact that a federal
> | court found in 1999 that Microsoft holds a monopoly over computer
> | operating systems and that it restricted computer manufacturers'
> | ability to use competing systems.
> |
> | [...]
> |
> | She said she'll show that the company used its monopoly power to
> | exclude competition and control prices and that it conspired with
> | other companies to restrain trade, maintaining what she called a
> | chokehold on software competitors and computer manufacturers.
> `----
>
> http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/061201/microsoft_trial.html?.v=1
|
|
