Microsoft can no longer put those types of conditions in their contracts. When existing contracts expire (and IBM's is up for renewal in mid-2004), then the MS business partners will be allowed to sell pre-loaded operating systems other than MS ones.
Mark Post -----Original Message----- From: Matt Zimmerman [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, November 16, 2003 5:06 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Linux ready for the desktop: IBM On Sun, Nov 16, 2003 at 07:30:39PM +0800, John Summerfield wrote: > On Fri, 14 Nov 2003, Matt Zimmerman wrote: > -snip- > > I'm sure there's a Microsoft lawyer somewhere salivating over that > > possibility. > > Why? Given that Microsoft's partners have been restricted from even _distributing_ competing software under other circumstances, I would assume that they also considered the possibility of developing software to directly challenge their market position. -- - mdz
