Linux blocked from Centrino says Lindows.com founder

"WHEN YOU SEE THAT Centrino sticker on the computer, you can substitute Microsoft Windows XP." So says Michael Robertson, Lindows.com CEO on the company's website. He continues, "as a cost saver perhaps we can expect to see 'Xpino' stickers in the future."

According to Robertson, Intel is refusing to play ball when it comes to getting Linux up and running on the Centrino chipset machines. He says that Intel is not providing Linux drivers for the essential hardware inside the chipset, leaving the open source community to scrabble around trying to figure out how to make drivers for themselves. That's a process that could take years.

Robertson thinks that it all comes down to an internal war within Intel's marketing department. He thinks that the engineers inside Intel are all for Linux but that marketing is playing on the knife-edge trying to please Microsoft. The problem is that Intel desperately needs Microsoft's operating systems on its Itanium processors so Intel has to be very careful about how it plays the game.

Robertson is not happy about the situation. He thinks that the pro-Microsoft camp within Intel is gaining too much ground. But then, he would think that, wouldn't he? µ