How about sponsoring from IBM?

[Roland]

At 07:57 PM 1/11/02 +0100, Joerg Mayer wrote:

>It looks like IBM spends its money on the products they themselvs use
>heavily, as well as training and making the name of Linux more popular
>(aka advertising/PR).

Hmm, I think 10 Million on WINE would do more advertising on the long run 
by attracting Windows Users and spreading the word, then the same amount 
spent on ads. If you really want to make Linux popular, running Windows 
software is the way, think about all the apps and games!!!

>I may have missed it but I haven't seen IBM spend
>money on a Linux(related) project just to further the project. If they
>wanted to spend $10e7 just to improve programs/tools just for the "good"
>of it I would be sad to see this money spent on wine. I'd like to see
>it spent on the development/improvement of *native* Linux apps that
>fulfill the need of current Windows users.

Well, you have two options:

1. Spend money on thousands of native Linux apps to capture the Windows users.
2. Spend money on ONE native Linux app(WINE) to make it run thousands of 
Windows apps and attract the corresponding users.

I think option 2 is the more intelligent and cheaper option.

Roland