READER COMMENTS: .net Jury Claims Microsoft/Siemens in Secret Joint Venture to Create Linux Distribution
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Ian Clarke - Subject: Not impossible (Sep 6, 1999, 14:46:44 )

This is probably a hoax, but it *could* be true. The investment required by Microsoft to create a Linux distribution would be minimal, given the free availability of much of the software created by other distribution vendors such as rpm and Lizard. They could easily whip up a Gnome or KDE theme to make the system look and feel like Windows. The question is - how would they use such a system to kill Linux? They can't undercut the other Linux vendors as they already give Linux away for free. They could possibly give their version of Linux the "added value" of their Office software, placing licencing restrictions to prevent that software running on other distributions, that would certainly be a very significant incentive for most casual users towards a Microsoft Linux. I will be very interested to read the debate that is spawned by this piece of news, particularly in the unlikely circumstance that it is true.

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