Scheme compilers (fwd)

[Kragen]

On Fri, 11 Sep 1998, Jordan Henderson wrote:
> IBM has done quite nicely while being firmly placed outside of
> "Bill's good graces", thank you.

Note their active promotion of OS/2, for example.  And how easily you
can buy a PC from them without Windows installed.  :)

>  Gateway is going to start selling Amigas.

Selling hardware Windows won't run on is one thing; selling hardware
Windows will run on without Windows on it is quite another.

Dell has been shipping PCs with Linux for a year now.  In April, a Dell
spokesman publicly denied that there was any demand from customers. Why?

> This "common wisdom" just doesn't fly.  What is it that Microsoft
> would do to Compaq?  Refuse to make the same OEM deals for Windows 
> preinstalled on Compaq PCs that they make with other vendors?
> Unlikely and illegal.

Intergraph is suing Intel for just this sort of thing, and Bristol
Software is suing Microsoft for something similar.

It may be illegal, but it's not unlikely.

Even if it were unlikely, the OEM deals are all under non-disclosure
agreements -- the OEMs are forbidden from revealing anything about them
to the outside world.  This could make it difficult for Compaq to find
out whether they were getting the same OEM deals for Windows, or to win
a lawsuit.

> Also, Microsoft and Compaq just yesterday announced a broad
> initiative to support integration of Windows and DEC UNIX.

This has some substance, perhaps.  I don't know anything about it.

> (http://www.sjmercury.com/business/microsoft/docs/053098.htm).

Kragen (who is surely wrong)

-- 
<kragen@pobox.com>       Kragen Sitaker     <http://www.pobox.com/~kragen/>
The sages do not believe that making no mistakes is a blessing. They believe, 
rather, that the great virtue of man lies in his ability to correct his 
mistakes and continually make a new man of himself.  -- Wang Yang-Ming