Linux News...

[Bruce Smith <bruce@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

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September 16, 1998

Inter@ctive Week via NewsEdge Corporation : There was no
black-lined obituary in the San Jose Mercury News, but the
Microsoft Corp. Windows and Intel Corp. computing alliance,
better known as Wintel, died on or about July 14, 1998. 

We all knew it had been a somewhat rocky marriage, with
stresses and strains along the way, like any other union. But no
one could argue with the offspring -- the Windows personal
computers populating every desktop from San Jose to Peshawar,
Pakistan. 

Yet, on July 14, Intel spokesman Sunil Saxena attended a panel
discussion about the future of Linux. There, at the Santa Clara
Convention Center in the heart of Silicon Valley, he declared that
Intel (www.intel.com) wanted to support Linux. 

Intel, of course, previously had helped The Santa Cruz Operation
Inc. (www.sco.com) put the Open Desktop (Unix) on its X86
processors; Sun Microsystems Inc. (www.sun.com) eagerly
offered its Solaris operating system on Intel as well. But neither
move was serious. Neither Open Desktop nor Solaris posed any
kind of threat to the dominance of Microsoft Windows. 

But supporting Linux is a different matter. What takes root
among the technical literati of the Valley has a way of finding its
way into ever-broadening circles. Linux has the most devoted
following since Apple Computer Inc.'s Macintosh. 

Linus Torvalds is no Steve Jobs -- which probably is a good
thing -- yet he effectively personifies the Open Source Code
movement. His long hours of toil in the Norwegian night
represent personal inspiration, competence and a meshing of
technical contributions. This may mean that Linux is something
less than insanely great; however, it is full of common sense,
usefulness and an admirable stability. 

And it just may represent the way we'll be getting our system
software 10 years from now. 

What has changed is not the mutual interests of Microsoft
(www.microsoft.com) and Intel so much as the forces with which
they are dealing. The companies still wish to maximize their
markets and their return on investment; they would cooperate
even more closely if doing so were profitable. But their ability
together to mold the future of technology has come and gone.
Intel, for one, recognizes it. 

If Internet standards and technologies are to rule, then the X86
desktop will be just one of several operating system choices
available on the network. Intel still may produce the fastest and
most powerful chips, but the device that populates the network
in many cases will host another chip -- one of the runners- up,
perhaps from a third-party supplier -- whose slightly reduced
power is more than offset by a steeply lower price. 

Intel has pushed forward the processing power of its chips so
fast that it no longer can be sure of commanding a premium price
for its fastest chip. In many cases, the Microprocessor Report
says, Intel's chip family shows a 2-1 performance advantage and
a 7-1 ratio in price. With the real value coming from the network,
not desktop horsepower, where will users put their money? 

Under the circumstances, why not seek future customers by
supporting another powerful operating system: Linux? In
another year, Linux will have a Windows- like front end, and its
popularity will extend beyond the confines of the technical
cognoscenti to users who dare surf the Internet with a cool
system whose origins more closely reflect the Net itself. A little
support from Intel could make this a more likely scenario. 

At the same time, Intel realizes that the expanding base of
computer users has reached a point at which some talented users
are able to create their own system software -- a phenomenon
that is going to repeat itself many times over the next decade.
Intel, for one, is paying heed to this new force in the
marketplace. 

Charles Babcock is a Senior Writer at Inter@ctive Week. Reach
him at cbabcock@zd.com on the Internet. 

<<Inter@ctive Week -- 09-14-98>> 

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