Not even quite a rumor - but perhaps "overheard", this article (seen on AppleTurns) writes:
Apple's new OS X operating system is available now, but Apple tells us not to expect the company to sell computers that boot directly into OS X until around April 2002.
Hmmm... well, if true, that would be unwelcome news... but it's still not clear where this information was obtained... and it's accuracy is certainly in question. In Jan, Jobs had stated that OS X would ship with all macs this Summer. With the coming of OS X 10.1... people have assumed that would be when OS X would ship as the default boot... but Jobs made no mention of this.