[ltp] ThinkPads with Intel Centrino and Linux?

[Michelle Klein-Hass]

On Sunday 23 November 2003 04:09 pm, Steve Barr wrote:
> Tim Prince wrote:
> > Doesn't IBM have a role in driver support?
>
> For an unsupported OS?
>
> I guess you'll have to ask IBM.   https://www.ibm.com/contact/us/en/query
>
> I don't speak for IBM.  There are chiefs
> and there are Indians.  I am a moccasin. :-)

The IBM reps who showed up at SCALE yesterday were very emphatic: IBM is 100% 
behind Linux on the Desktop...and by extension, Linux on ThinkPads, now. One 
of the guys I met put it this way: 

"IBM is a huge company...a lot like how an oil supertanker is a huge ship. For 
an oil supertanker to change course, it takes hours and hours of steering to 
accomplish the task. For a huge corporation to change course, it takes years 
and years of steering. IBM's committment to the Linux desktop is a long time 
coming...it's been in the works for at least two years and won't be 100% 
visible for another year. But just keep an eye out, it will materialize. 
Trust me."

The guy who complained that he got an "I'm sorry, but we only support Windows 
on ThinkPads" will possibly get a different response in a matter of months.

I made the suggestion that perhaps one of the first places that Linux could be 
rolled out could be on off-lease machines through IBM Credit. His response: 
"Just watch our moves next year. It will give you a lot of reason for hope."

Naturally the guy didn't want to be named. But the fact that IBM was the 
Platinum Sponsor of the event, and was a big presence there, suggests that he 
wasn't just talking out his behind.

=.\\<-H-

-- 
Michelle Klein-Hass
Box 2273, Van Nuys, CA 91404-2273
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