Doesn't really say anything yet (Score 1)

Being first to support a chip doesn't say much. Apple was first with a graphical OS but Windows has trounced them. I don't know how stable the Itanium builds of Linux are, but the most important thing to consider is how much support the OS has. Sure, Linux has a lot of support on slashdot, but the cold hard facts is that Windows has a lot of support for servers. Lots of people will still blow of Linux and wait for the Windows ver to come out. To see whether Window will flop with their Itanium configuration, you first have to wait to see how many Windows Itanium packages are sold when it arrives. I'd like to see Linux succeed and all. But don't make assumptions because of a lack of information.