Microsoft 'killed Dell Linux' - States, Mar 20, 2002

Microsoft gunman Joachim Kempin, who was convicted of illegally shooting antelope in Montana in 1998, has been turning his firepower on a more familiar target: Microsoft's own OEM customers.

Earlier memos described that it was "untenable" that a key Microsoft partner was promoting Linux. Kuney revealed that Dell disbanded its Linux business unit in early 2001. Dell quietly pulled Linux from its desktop PCs in the summer of 2001, IDG's Ashlee Vance discovered subsequently, six months after we heard Michael Dell declare his love of Linux on the desktop the previous winter.

Citing "the impact of the economic downturn that has prevailed since March", Lineo reduced its headcount again this week and continued the process begun last Fall of narrowing its focus to three key target markets. According to CEO Matt Harris, the company is reducing its size from 138 employees to between 75 and 80. Harris said that revenues from services and royalties during Q1 2002 are up sharply, more than doubling that of Q4 2001, and that the current backlog exceeds $5M of scheduled services and license revenues, but that the changes are required to achieve profitability by mid-2002.

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