Maybe this year Linus Torvalds is right

Lets place some facts together:

• Dell is successfully shipping desktops and laptops with Ubuntu Linux for quite a while, and recently has updated it's line.
  
• Asus EEE PC is a huge hit in US and it is shipped with Xandros Linux.
• Everex Green PC is one of the bestsellers at Wal-Mart and it is shipped with modified Ubuntu Linux (gOS) .
• Acer is starting a pilot in Australia, shipping it's low end laptops preinstalled with Linux.
• Shuttle introduced an Everex Green PC competitor for similar price. Also running Ubuntu.
• Everex is expected to start shipping their Cloudbook laptops with similar characteristics as Asus EEE PC and also at similar price. Will be shipped with gOS.
• Lenovo has announced , that it would ship R61 and T61 Thinkpad laptops with SUSE Linux.
• There are small companies like System76, ZaReason that, for quite a while, offer Linux based systems.
• There are companies that offer Linux based thin clients as products (Koolu) or as service (Zonbu).
• There are OpenMoko and Google Android projects providing Linux in cellular phones.

Update:

• Mirus are selling another sub $200 desktop, with Linspire Linux at Sears.
  

Do we have a trend here?
I think that we do.
Perhaps it is not long for Linux to go mainstream.

Microsoft at their game

Want a perfect example of how Microsoft makes business?
Read an open letter to Steve Ballmer, in recent post on a blog by François Bancilhon.
Two best describing quotes from the letter:
This:

Then, your people get in the game and the deal got more competitive. I would not say it got dirty, but someone could have said that.

and this:

Wow! I’m impressed, Steve! What have you done to these guys to make them change their mind like this? It’s quite clear to me, and it will be to everyone. How do you call what you just did Steve? There is various names for it, I’m sure you know them.

Business first, logic later.

Our beloved OEM's keep stuffing their product's hard drives with all that annoying bundleware. It even comes to an absurd situations:
Lenovo tech support advises to remove Norton Antivirus in order to improve the appalling performance it causes, while Lenovo keeps bundling Symantec products with all of their consumer and many of the business products.
Pure genius.
This is where money dictates the logic.

Pricey future

I'm so glad that Steve Ballmer saw that the future is in advertising. That's why Microsoft is loosing $1 billion on MSN.
Lucky them, to have deep enough pockets (on our expense).