MESSAGE
| DATE | 2003-03-20 |
| FROM | From: "Inker, Evan"
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [hangout] Lindows CEO attacks Intel's Centrino Linux lockout
|
Lindows CEO attacks Intel's Centrino Linux lockout
By John Lettice
Posted: 20/03/2003 at 11:00 GMT
Intel is going through a major internal struggle over desktop Linux, and the
pro-Microsoft marketing droids are currently winning, according to
Lindows.com CEO Michael Robertson. As evidence, Robertson puts forward the
lack of Linux support for Centrino, the mysterious blocking of his company's
request to participate in an Intel roadshow, and the last minute pullout of
Intel speakers at his Desktop Linux Summit earlier this year.
"Many inside Intel want to fully back consumer Linux products," says
Robertson in one of his racier 'Michael's Minute' bulletins. "Intel
engineers are active contributors to Linux software development and do an
excellent job of ensuring that the latest chips and motherboards have solid
Linux support. They've sent many products to our certification labs as part
of that process and we're grateful for their support. However, when it comes
to packaging those components into complete computers and announcing their
availability, strong resistance emerges. It's a classic 'engineering vs.
marketing' business struggle. The technology-minded folks see a growing
trend that is imperative for them to support in order to stay fully relevent
in all areas of the PC business. While the marketing-minded individuals are
more worried about the risk of upsetting Microsoft."
This process perhaps explains the roadshow incident. Lindows.com asked to
participate in an upcoming show, and according to Robertson the initial
reaction was, 'Great. We'd love to have you participate because we're
getting increasing interest in Linux desktop machines.' But once it hit
marketing, "we are told we cannot participate even though we are willing to
pay the required fees and they have told us there is room. Perhaps it is
because Microsoft is also a major sponsor of this event".
Well indeed, given that Microsoft and Lindows.com are currently in
litigation there might be a certain amount of friction, but they're
grown-ups, so they should be able to behave. Or are they? Can they?
In the case of the Intel speakers' pullout of the Desktop Linux Summit,
Robertson says that marketing blocked their participation, citing "branding
restrictions". He says he doesn't know what they meant by that, and nor
indeed do we. However, it does seem to hint either at restrictive agreements
with certain other companies, or some form of internal Intel market
segmentation that rules out Linux on the desktop.
Robertson says he's most concerned about the lack of Linux support for
Centrino. "Intel says that 300 million dollars will go into advertising this
new product for mobile computing, but Intel isn't making the small
investment to provide Linux drivers. When you see that 'Centrino' sticker on
the computer, you can substitute 'Microsoft Windows XP'."
You can see why this gets to him. Centrino is essentially a marketing
gambit, a packaging of the Pentium M and Intel's Pro/wireless 2100 mini-PCI
Wi-Fi card. There's nothing wildy clever about this, and from the customer's
point of view it's really a trade-off between the convenience of getting it
all in one package and being restricted to the Intel Wi-Fi card. From
Intel's point of view it's a matter of marketing it for all its worth and
thus leveraging itself into a dominant position in the notebook Wi-Fi
market. Hence the $300 million.
Lindows.com is the company with the highest profile in preinstalled desktop
Linux systems, and recently announced a cheap LindowsOS notebook. And here,
we think, is where Michael's antennae start twitching. At the moment
Lindows.com has made a fair bit of the running with non-Intel systems. You
can get preinstalled Intel LindowsOS machines, but you're probably more
likely to end up with AMD, or in the small footprint and portable areas,
Via.
To progress in the general OEM market Robertson needs to be able to strike
deals with Intel; not to be treated equally with, say, Dell or HP yet, but
to be taken seriously. In the notebook and tablet markets, the need for a
relationship is surely much greater. Breakthrough into the portable markets
has mysteriously eluded Intel's rivals, with Transmeta's near-disappearance,
despite early support in the tablet arena from Microsoft, being particularly
worth noting. Robertson, as we keep saying, is not stupid, he knows a lot of
the money is going to come via portable machines, he also knows how
determined Intel is, to own the portable market, and how successful it's
been so far.
So while other people might think they'd prefer to buy a Pentium M system
and a separate Wi-Fi card, no problem, that $300 million on Centrino
marketing hurts Michael deeply. And long term, he's right. For as long as
there is no rival that is treated as seriously by Intel in the desktop
sector as Microsoft is, then the rivals will find it hard going - they will
not be serious rivals. Whether or not the first serious rival should be
Michael is an entirely different matter, but credit where credit's due, he's
taking a shot at it - who else is? (r)
****************************************************************************
This message contains confidential information and is intended only
for the individual or entity named. If you are not the named addressee
you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail.
Please notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received
this e-mail by mistake and delete this e-mail from your system.
E-mail transmission cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free
as information could be intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive
late or incomplete, or contain viruses. The sender therefore does not
accept liability for any errors or omissions in the contents of this
message which arise as a result of e-mail transmission.
If verification is required please request a hard-copy version.
This message is provided for informational purposes and should not
be construed as an invitation or offer to buy or sell any securities or
related financial instruments.
GAM operates in many jurisdictions and is
regulated or licensed in those jurisdictions as required.
****************************************************************************
____________________________
NYLXS: New Yorker Free Software Users Scene
Fair Use -
because it's either fair use or useless....
NYLXS is a trademark of NYLXS, Inc
|
|
