The corporation, which has around 80,000 employees, is rolling out Windows 2K rather than the latest greatest OS from Microsoft.

The decision was taken last year and Intel will spend much of this year standardising on W2K in every site and country in the world.

Although Intel uses the Microsoft OS for its desktop and for its notebooks, as well as a fair chunk of its servers, its fabrication plants, the factories which make its microprocessors, are run using OpenVMS - a clear vote for the reliability of the OS.

It also uses a number of other platforms in its server platforms, including Sun and IBM kit.

But it would be great to know just why Intel decided not to go with WinXP, considering its endorsement of the platform at the launch last October. µ