Rodent Regatta

There’s a noise level of some magnitude surrounding the possibility that IBM is evaluating desktop Linux as an alternative operating environment for personal computers. To oversimplify, I see Apple’s OS X operating system as a version of Unix/Linux with Apples GUI in front of it. Perhaps that’s wrong.

It’s also my impression, though I’ve never touched one of them, that the various distributions of Linux come with one or more ”popular” GUI’s. Novell just bought SuSE. Apple (AAPL) is worth approximately $9 billion.

These valuations and the momentum that exists in this area would make for an attractive alternative to Windows if the politics of getting the right players together could be overcome. Plenty of consumers would make the switch. Had Apple announced something more significant than GarageBand and mini ipods, I might have made the leap to a Powerbook.

Time will tell.