[Gllug] He who controls the bootloader

[David Damerell]

On Tuesday, 28 Aug 2001, Richard Cohen wrote:
>> Sun say they support Linux completely? News to me.
>(not on behalf of my employer)
>I think I can state quite authoritatively(*) that Sun do no support Linux
>completely.

Well, quite; it's been very amusing watching the struggle between the
desire to keep flogging Solaris and to stick together in the "anyone
but Microsoft" camp.

For me, Sun's ambivalence was best represented by their attempt to
ignore the fact that the Linux boys had a 64-bit kernel for their kit
before they did.

>Some parts of the company like Cobalt (duh!), Java or
>StarOffice do support Linux completely, but the company as a whole
>does not.

Notwithstanding the rumour about them putting Cobalt onto Solaris. :-)

>I would say that the same is very much true of IBM - can anyone tell me
>where I can get (buy or otherwise) a copy of Notes Client or SmartSuite
>which works and is supported on Linux?

To say anything is true 'of IBM' is a bit of a misnomer; they much
more than Sun or HP or SGI or even DEC/Compaq are effectively composed
of several separate companies pulling in different directions. But I
think they have realised that their ultimate interest is in selling
hardware and services and support, and so they can afford to be OS
agnostic in a way that Sun cannot.

This isn't just their rhetoric, either; there are visible differences
between the two. Linux S/390 is well advanced; try talking to Sun
about running Linux on the E10K (marketed as an S/390 wannabe) and see
how far you get.

>I wouldn't totally dismiss the conspiracy theory.

Neither would I; except that, like so many conspiracy theories, it
nicely requires not a shred of evidence while sounding plausible.

Sure, it _might_ be true; and the Bavarian Illuminati might have shot
JFK. But, lacking any actual reason to believe either...

[It might have been true in the past - and the lack of dual-boot BeOS
machines requires more explanation, since that was a consumer-grade OS
- but I can't see Microsoft being that stupid today - especially since
some of the companies who would have seen these agreements would be
glad to bring them down a peg or two.]

-- 
David Damerell <damerell at chiark.greenend.org.uk> flcl?

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