“As if Sun doesnt have enough problems,” pondered the Puss between pawfuls of popcorn as he watched the coming attractions before the sci-fi thriller “Minority Report.”
With HP and IBM set to gang up on Scott McNealy & Co. at LinuxWorld in San Francisco this week, flaunting offers to migrate Solaris users to their Linux platforms, there on the screen was a trailer for an upcoming space flick called “Solaris.” Due in December, the movie is directed by “Sex, Lies and Videotape” director Steven Soderbergh. The thing is, with a tag line of “There are some places man is not ready to go,” you wonder if HP, IBM or even Microsoft had a hand in the pre-release marketing of the movie. “I wonder if Beam me up, Scotty will have a new meaning after this one comes out?” queried the Katt.
Of course, you have to wonder what it is with Microsoft and Linux. Redmondites for months have been boasting about the companys decision to have a booth at LinuxWorld. The move, theyve said, is intended as a peace offering of sorts to the open-source community for derogatory comments company executives have made about Linux. And Microsoft has said itll be at the show to listen to customers who are considering a move to Linux.
A tabby tattler tells the Lynx what Microsoft has not been sharing, however, is its unhappiness with LinuxWorlds organizer, IDG World Expo. Apparently, the group has relegated Microsoft to an area on the Moscone Center floor known as the Rookery. The Rookery is set aside for startups and first-time exhibitors.
While Microsoft is indeed a first-timer at the show, the Kitty hears that some of its executives have been privately expressing annoyance at the humiliation of having the worlds largest software maker sitting among startups. “Imagine that!” purred the Puss. “The paws on the other foot.”
Speaking of science fiction—-I mean, corporate accounting practices—-the timing of big changes in the executive suite at managed service provider Digex is looking strange. In May, Digex fired its outside auditor, (you guessed it) Arthur Andersen. Then on June 21—-just before the WorldCom debacle came to light—-Digex CEO Mark Shull was replaced by George Kerns and removed from the board. Then Scott Sullivan was removed from the board early in July. In mid-July, there was a sea change on the board, with Lawrence Tucker, Gregory Clark and Edith Holiday abruptly leaving. “Kinda reminds me of patrons at Attack of the Clones,” laughed the Lynx.
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