>1)" DEC will start shipping an Alpha that forces (in firmware) users to use
NT.
> "The expanded alliance (with Microsoft) coincides with Digital's plans
>to ship by month's
end an Alpha processor with firmware that restricts it to running only NT
software, sources close to the company said. The chip is expected to
run NT applications faster than existing Alphas that support multiple
operating systems."
If all the low cost Alpha systems become exclusively available for NT, this
will seriously impede continued development of Linux for Alpha, and close
the door on a cheap, high-performance, non-Microsoft platform. This was
part of a much larger article on Wired, so I don't know if the normal cheap
Alphas will be phased out or not (I would hope not, but it may affect
availability)."