twitter's Journal: Microsoft Theatened to "Whack" Dell Over Linux in 2002

The Register , and others are reporting 2002 email presented in the ongoing Iowa Microsoft antitrust trial, where executives threaten Dell for working with Red Hat:

...a week after Microsoft promised a federal judge it would mend its ways - top executives brainstormed on ways to get Dell to [dump enterprise Linux - Dell had already given up it's desktop effort].

"We should whack them, we should make sure they understand our value, we should do all of the things you and Brian suggest," Paul Flessner, Microsoft's senior VP of server apps, wrote to Bill Veghte, a corporate VP.

"I can't imagine he would be this blatant against us if he knew you were there," wrote Valentine, "...we have some serious thinking to do around this relationship."

The thread ends with Veghte's threat, "making damn certain our investments with Dell are benchmarked against any investments they make in Red Hat" and some fuming about how Dell enjoyed working with Red Hat. They still enjoy that.