This is proof that the Wintel Cartel lives on after the antitrust trial
(where Intel testified against M$). After all these years, did you think that
it would just roll-over and die? Of course not. Here, we have a symbiotic
relationship. Both Intel chips and M$ apps have become ubiquitous standards
on the desktop from helping each other. Now this arrangement is scaling both
up into the server (Itanium and WinXP) and down into embedded devices
(StrongARM and WinCE).
GNU/Linux is a threat to Intel because of its portability. Anyone can compile
GNU/Linux code to run on many other non-Intel hardware platforms, like those
of IBM, Sun, HP and Compaq -- in other words, Intel's main competition.
However, GNU/Linux is gaining ground on the server, and Intel realise that
they'd be idiots to oppose it at the high-end. Corporates are more likely to
switch to another OS than an ordinary home user (who is probably still trying
to find the "any key").
On the desktop, Intel are faced with a rejuvenated Apple, employing
Motorola's version of the PowerPC design. Remember the whole "CISC vs RISC"
war of the early- to mid- 1990s? Apple chips were actually faster than Intel
ones, but what saved Intel was their ability to turn MegaHertz into a
commodity (i.e. Intel had more MHz per processor, fooling people into
believing that their systems were quicker) and the fact that Windows ran on
x86.
Now Intel are also faced with competition on their own turf, in the guise of
AMD and Transmeta (among others). AMD already have almost a quarter of the
desktop CPU market, and they aim for 30% by year's end. Notice how more
vigorously AMD are promoting GNU/Linux compared to Intel? AMD's x86-64
architecture will be incompatible with Itanium's, and there is no guarantee
that M$ will make a Windos port for it. They need a good OS, and they've
found one in GNU/Linux. Intel, of course, doesn't like that. Intel will
surely support (i.e. run) GNU/Linux, but they won't actively promote it
(much), since it just gives the competition a leg-up.
So in conclusion, both Intel and Microsoft are mutually-beneficial monopolies
(to use the economic, not the dictionary, definition). It doesn't make any
business sense to promote another hardware architecture (MS) or OS (Intel).
At the same time, however, other hardware and software platforms cannot be
totally ignored.
On Sat, 23 Jun 2001 21:55, Romanator wrote:
> Where are our big guns? Please read this story when you have time.
> However, it's not all doom and gloom.
>
>
> http://www.zdnet.com/enterprise/stories/linux/0,12249,2778923,00.html
>
>
> Roman
> Registered Linux User #179293
> Email Powered By Tux Email Utility
--
Sridhar Dhanapalan.
"There are two major products that come from Berkeley:
LSD and UNIX. We don't believe this to be a coincidence."
-- Jeremy S. Anderson
