a couple of recent articles at www.linuxtoday.com have got me to
wondering about ibm's apparently schizophrenic support of linux.
as most of us know, ibm has pledged over a billion dollars
recently for linux support and development, and a very recent
article talks about the upcoming release of ibm's AIX 5L operating
system, the 'L' standing for linux. gosh, it certainly seems that
ibm is standing behind linux.
on the other hand, an earlier article describes one chap's attempt
to buy an ibm thinkpad, only to find that, for the most part, ibm
is still soaking the consumer for the despised "microsoft tax".
if you check out information on ibm's website, almost every possible
configuration for sale comes pre-loaded with (you guessed it) some
microsoft OS, be it ME or windows 2000. the only non-ms version
comes with a version of caldera's open linux and is astonishingly
the same price as for a win2k box of the same model, and $100 more
than a win me box. there is apparently no option to buy a bare
thinkpad, so someone who wants to run red hat is still paying for
an OS they don't want.
to add insult to injury, plastered all over ibm's pages is the
grating slogan, "ibm recommends windows 2000 professional for
business."
if ibm really wants to show its support for linux, i suggest the
first thing they do is stop soaking us for an OS we don't want and
give us the opportunity to buy an empty system. now *that* would
show me they're serious about linux.
anyone from ibm care to comment?
rday
--
Robert P. J. Day
Eno River Technologies, Durham NC
Unix, Linux and Open Source training
"This is Microsoft technical support. How may I misinform you?"
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