“According to published reports in mid-April, the company
decided to develop tools for Linux. However, within a week, company
spokesmen (when they responded at all to such reports) were denying
any decision was taken…”
“I was able to get in touch with one of the company’s European
PR people, Sandra Van Vreedendaal. She told me, “No, it’s not true
that a decision has been taken to develop the tools. The decision
has been taken that we will conduct explorations into Linux
support. We have not decided yet at this stage whether or not that
is something we want to develop further, but we will explore the
possibilities.”
“She noted that the major result of the meeting was the company
would investigate development of such tools, not an assurance that
they would be developed. “It appeared,” she said, “that over 50%
of them (delegates to the conference) expressed their intention to
implement Linux to some degree. So… we will take that feedback
into account and we will be exploring the possibility of supporting
Linux.”
“I’m sure industry developments will influence us, yes. Three
months to a decision is our initial estimate of how long it will
take us to decide whether it’s a feasible direction for us to go
into or not.”