Mailinglist Archive: opensuse (4237 mails)

[jonathan_hughes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Hi list,

Just a short addition to this discussion:

As someone else stated in the past - IBM, to a degree, used to be the
Microsoft of today. Lets not forget that Microsoft's earlier products like
MS-DOS and Windows for Workgroups were, in their day, easily copied,
installed and distributed. I remember at the time reading that Bill Gates
was well aware his OS was being copied like mad, he knew thousands were
pirating his OS and he knew because of this he was gaining in popularity.
He was getting the market through piracy so to speak (I trust thoise of you
reading will understand where that statement comes from). Also Microsoft
was an outsider - a rebel for the people so to speak - opposing the BIG
BLUE.

It is humorous then to see Microsoft, in essence, now that it wants to
start forcing payment and prevent pirating of its OS, that it is suffering
from the very same thing that made it a widely used household name. It is
losing to something that is relatively free and easy to share/copy,
something that is there for the people, a rebel so to speak, an outsider -
Linux.

With a bit of diplomatic license and the major difference that Linux offers
it source - which MS have never done - there are parallel's here.

---------------------------------------------
  Jonathan Hughes
  Technical Support Specialist
  Goodyear South Africa
---------------------------------------------
  MCSD / MCP
  Registered Linux User # 362669
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                      Curtis Rey                                                                            
                      <crey@xxxxxxxxxx         To:      suse-linux-e@xxxxxxxx                               
                      >                        cc:                                                          
                                               Subject: Re: [SLE] Microsoft sings a new tune on Linux       
                      08/15/04 07:12                                                                        
                      PM                                                                                    
                                                                                                            
                                                                                                            




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On Tue August 10 2004 09:30, LRivas@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> Ballmer and Taylor are really sick, and have none knowledge about the
open
> source or linux philosophy, seeing linux as a rival who is trying to beat
> them... poor guys

Quit the contray.  M$ runs several linux boxes at their devel labs.  Also a
recent article release confirmed that M$ is now running 1/3 of their server
farms with Linux for studies purposes.  A friend of the family is a M$ dev
and runs a couple of Linux distros at his desk at M$.

What gives M$ fits is that there is no head to swing at.  It is not
corporately owned.  Sure IBM, Novell and others are using, supporting and
developing linux - but no one out and out owns Linux in the manner that M$
is
used to dealing with.  They can't cripple the business that makes x, y, or
z
products.  M$' tactics have been to wound competitors companies and then
let
them bleed out.   There is no one company to wound or attack.  They
understand the OSS philosophy all too well and it scares the shit out of it
them.  What GNU, OSS and Linux do is turn software into a commodity and
this
threatens M$ market share and profitability.  So they only have one or so
tools in their Embrace, extend, extinguish strategy.  That being FUD paired
with a their now weakened efforts at strong arming their partners (e.g.
OEMs
and ISVs).  Weak and toothless as the DOJ settlement is it still brings a
lot
of M$' dirtier tactics to the light of day and therefore they just can't
run
off carte blanche and tell their vendors and partners if they don't do
things
the way M$ wants then life will be very difficult.

What F/OSS and Linux are doing are taking away the draconian tactics that
shackled the market for competition.  They actually have to start trying to
make a product that is now "compared" to something else - in this case and
alternative OS that runs on commodity hardware - e.g ia32/64 on x86
architectures.   Mac was rescued by an M$ loan because it a) ran on non x86
arch and was not a commodity hardware market and B) it gave them the
abiltiy
to dispell (to some extent) that they were out and out a blatant monopoly.
Wintel converting to Lintel is what really scares them, along with
commoditized software - M$ charges too much, their software is poorly
designed in many ways and it's only at the state of functionality it has
because the OEM/ISV market had not other place to go.

Now enterprise is switching Unix to Linux and this was not the M$ plan - it
was to switch Unix to Windows.  M$ is about vender and client lock ins -
Linux is the antithesis of this - and if the masses fall in line with
mandating a comparable choice and starts to compare M$ verse whatever then
M$
will be seen for what it is - an overpriced and second rate product.  But
how
would anyone know if it is indeed overpriced and second rate if there's
nothing to compare it to - Linux is the comparison and now their is a
metering stick in which to make comparisons - this is what M$ really really
doesn't want.  Look how many times they have pushed back Longhorn - at its
present state M$ doesn't have anything that can be developed as fast or
congently as Linux.  Being able to look and change source code is a benefit
to the client and a detriment to M$ - M$ wants to keep its secret and Linux
has no secrets - nothing to hide, which is something M$ can't claim.

Just MHO!

Cheers, Curtis.
> Greg,
>
> On Tuesday 10 August 2004 08:46, Greg Lumpkin wrote:
> > Interesting article.
>
> But there's really no "new tune," is there? To wit:
>
> "In January Taylor poached one of IBM's former Linux technical leaders,
> William Hilf, to test 20 versions of open-source software in Redmond.
> Hilf two years ago was in front of audiences touting the cost
> effectiveness, reliability and performance of open-source software.
> Nowadays he's working the Microsoft spiel: "There's no set architecture
> in Linux. All roads lead to madness," and "the devil is in the details.
> This stuff is not easy to run."
>
> " ...
>
> " ... Microsoft is actively sowing uncertainty and doubt among potential
> Linux customers over who, if anyone, owns the intellectual property
> behind open-source software."
>
>
> Classic MS FUD.
>
> And this one is just a joke:
>
> " ... Can Linux really handle crucial areas such as security and e-mail?"
>
> > http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5614334/
>
> Randall Schulz
>
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