Dear Mr. Palmisano and Mr. Goyal

Microsoft's dominance of the desktop is the most serious long-term threat to all of IBM's strategic plans. Industry-wide trends that de-emphasize the importance of the desktop remain vulnerable to Microsoft counter-attack and co-optation. Someone must take on Microsoft on the desktop, and the only player in the industry capable of doing so is IBM. The most effective way to do battle with Microsoft on the desktop would be to aggressively fund development on the WINE project, lending IBM's backing and expertise to the effort to make Linux a truly competitive desktop platform. If there are problems due to intellectual property issues dating back to IBM's relationship with Microsoft in the early OS/2 days, then funding a clean-room skunkworks effort should still possible. Doing this will hurt Microsoft and strengthen IBM's software products and services businesses, but more importantly it will cover the flank of IBM's most strategic interests.