Michael Dell doubts desktop Linux demand

If you listen closely, you can hear the muffled cries of Michael's family members being held at gunpoint by big scary guys wearing XP armbands.

He's simply hedging his bet and trying to lower expectations I would imagine. Look...M$ has had OEM from almost the beginning and that head start is tremendous. Couple that with distro fragmentation (read distro wars) the lack of any silly little crayon overlay commercials like M$ has, and the fact that Linux has a "history" of being user un-friendly, and you have some very good reasons for him to be doubtful. Can this be overcome? I think so, but not in the 18 month window Linux has to make some great headway. Look...Longhorn is floundering and I have it from VERY good credentials that there is a magnificant amount of infighting right now concerning IE7. The IE DevTeam is at each others throats as we speak. These things being combined, Linux has a perfect chance to get some market share...it just does not have the vehicle. THAT'S a damn shame.

helios

What are they at each other's throats about, exactly?

Linux is ready for the desktop, or at least some distros are. The problem is that MS have inertia and a lot of marketing dollars on their side. Many companies large and small, and many government bodies are now seriously looking at the MS tax they pay, and wondering what they are getting for their money. Many places are seriously evaluating Linux, but they clearly aren't jumping ship quite yet.

Dell has to be pragmatic, he sells, and people buy, and he makes a shed load of money. If people want Windows, then he has to be nice to MS if he wants to get it at the price he needs to make the profits he is use to. Given the number of boxes Dell shifts, a one or two dollar better price on Windows could make a big difference...

In the UK some of the small to mid sized box shifters are now offering naked or Linux machines for less than the MS ones. They don't get the same discount Dell does, so it make sense for them to offer Linux as a desktop solution. Allegedly you can even get a HP notebook with FreeDOS and then a HP ubuntu CD if you ask, but I have no idea how you do this, it's no where to be found on the HP or ubuntu web sites.