MS promotes Linux from threat to 'the' threat

The Register ^ | 12/11/2001 | Thomas C Greene

[Justa]

They sound like other companies in the '80s which were fighting to keep market share from the broad platform, inexpensive and easily-licensed solution MS gave customers. The wheel turns.

The companies who make the mistake of migrating from IBM to Intel/2000 instead of IBM/Linux or Intel/Turbo Linux (it has datacenter) are doing so out of ignorance imo. When they find their databases inside .Net in 2 years it will be too late and too bad. It'll be like running a business inside AOL's network. They'll have no control over the network's protocols and partnering. Good riddance.

[VoodooEconomist]

Little 'ol Linux scaring the pants off of software giant, Microsoft? Nah. Can't be. Liberals have told us Microsoft is a monopoly that cannot be challenged ... that they stifle competition. Yada yada yada. Are the liberals lying? Say it ain't so!

[PogySailor]

Don't feel to happy for Sun either. My company plans to move ALL UNIX applications to LINUX VM's running on IBM Z-series or S/390 (Mainframes) machines.

[LiveFree2000]

Linux will be no threat to Microsoft until my mother can install it.

[DouglasKC]

As Microsoft has learned, ya can't beat free...or even nearly free...software.

[general_re]

Something makes me think that your mother didn't install Windows. ;)

That being said, Mandrake is pretty darn close to meeting that standard.

[d3nny h4st3rt]

Is this news? Linux will lose in the long run. And on a completely unrelated note... I just installed XP, and *damn* it is nice.

[JRandomFreeper]

Anybody can install linux from the distros like Caldera now. It's amazing how far Linux has progressed from the old Slackware 8 floppy install.

/john

[FreedomFarmer]

...then do a walk-thru of their datacenters and take inventory...

There is nothing more useless or arrogant that a salesman. One that DEMANDS his minions trespass, question, and invade my business to make a sale is the enemy.

Thank you for posting this, Schnucki. MicroTaliban just lost a lot of money.

[eno_]

They are right to be scared. Linux is different from a commercial competitor. In many ways, Microsoft can't compete against Linux - that is, not compete and lose, but can't even get in the same game. Google is built on free software, and would have cost tens of millions more to build on Windows (and even more if they used Solaris). I like XP, but the first time I can't get around some content protection crap, I'll set up a Linux machine for my media management instead of XP.

[VA Voter]

This is nothing but old fashioned rah-rah motivational salesmanship. There's nothing here to support any nefarious behaviour by MS.

BTW, the posting of customer names and other personal information of innocent people is not too cool.

[B Knotts]

Linux cannot "lose" as it is not a company.

As long as one person remains interested in it, it will live on.

And, on the contrary, Linux is picking up steam, in light of Microsoft's latest release/privacy invasion/extortion attempt.

[medved]

You can get the latest distribution of RedHat (7.2) from www.cheapbytes.com for the cost of the CDs plus shipping, about $15, and it leaves all versions of windows in the dust.

[Justa]

I like XP Pro's packet scheduler that seeks out and switches to the fastest route. I really helps in long-distance dls. As for overall performance you have to remove the 20% resource reservation to get it to operate at full power.

[MadIvan]

And, on the contrary, Linux is picking up steam, in light of Microsoft's latest release/privacy invasion/extortion attempt.

I am in the internet industry. Compare the number of times that Apache falls over to the number of times that IIS falls over. Compare MySQL to MS SQL in that manner too. Compare ASP to PHP performance. Open Source solutions are more stable and reliable and that is the end of the matter. Microsoft can either adapt or go under.

Regards, Ivan

[upchuck]

Lindows

Mr. Valentine didn't mention this in his memo. Maybe he doesn't know about it. But if Lindows can be made into a viable product, MSFT may be in big trouble.

What is Lindows? Simply, Linux with a Windows GUI and API.

Here are some links:

Lindows home page
An article from Internet News
An article from ZDNET
And, finally, an article from the Clinton News Network

FWIW, I've been saying for several years that MSFT should dump all their OS code and use Unix/Linux as their OS and concentrate on the API and GUI. This, apparently, is what Lindows is all about.

[Redcloak]

I just love it when someone puts a skir into Microsoft. Unlike their competition, they go off and get more competative rather than get "lawyered up". The end result is that they, and their better competitors, turn out better products. Personally, they've lost me. W98 will be our last Microsoft OS. Linux will be its replacement, not XP. But, if they get their knickers into a sufficient twist, they'll inadvertantly prompt Linux software developers to produce better products for me.

The consumer wins again thanks to competition, not the courts.

[Redcloak]

Pity there isn't more info on their website. It looks like it isn't much more than vaporware at the moment. There are already ways to get Windows itself to run under Linux. Win4Lin comes to mind. However, if Lindows can turn out a product for the projected price, they'd certainly be more attractive. (And the Spring '02 timeframe works for me!)