Microsoft 'killed Dell Linux' - States
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| 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.
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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.
Earlier today:
Court tells Intel to hand over foreign documents in antitrust case
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| 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."
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http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061217-8436.html
General background:
Jury Hears Microsoft Competition Suit
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| 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.
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http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/061201/microsoft_trial.html?.v=1
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