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...but things are pretty cold in that sector right now.

And I doubt if they'll ever warm up for someone who passionately believes in the Open Source movement, because it's very hard to make money when you believe everything should be free.

Open Source may or may not be a good idea for the consumers (it depends on circumstances), but companies that depend on Open Source software for revenues have a built-in cap on how much they can make. Venture capitalists don't like that.

companies that depend on Open Source software for revenues have a built-in cap on how much they can make.

How much money do you think Dell or HP make on a copy of Windows that they resell as an OEM? Do you think it's any different than what they would make installing Linux instead?

Revenues are not margins. In fact revenues that don't generate margins hurt a company's overall ROA. The price pressure on Intel boxes is sufficiently strong that the margins on the Windows resale are pushed to zero by competitive forces. The OEMs are therefore indifferent between Windows and linux.

Your venture capitalists will not care how much money you intend to make for Microsoft. They only care how much money you can make. You can't make money reselling Windows. Everybody does it and it's a commodity. It might as well be linux for all the money you'll make from it.

Open Source may or may not be a good idea for the consumers (it depends on circumstances), but companies that depend on Open Source software for revenues have a built-in cap on how much they can make. Venture capitalists don't like that.

That may be true in the software business, but HP is a hardware business and I do not see how restricting themselves to be an MS only shop will benefit them.

Even in software, one has to wonder if the open source model is not better than towing the MS line. Too many companies have gone under playing by MS's unfair rules.