[Linux-aus] Fwd: Microsoft to take direct shots at Linux rivals

[Jon maddog Hall]

But they still don't get it.  For example:

> As open-source software projects have grown from hobbies to widely used
> products, companies such as Red Hat, MySQL and Zend have arrived to  support
> them. Taylor predicted those companies will gradually grow more  remote from
> the free-form open-source programming community as they  fulfill commercial
> requirements such as testing to ensure that updates  don't break existing
> software.

Most of the good free software projects were never hobbies.  They were tools,
created by the people who needed them.  Red Hat was not started as a "hobby",
and neither was MySQL.

Linus speaks of Linux as "fun", and it should be.  But he has also had in his
mind "world domination", and you don't do that with just a "hobby" as Microsoft
thinks of hobbies.

> "What we're beginning to see is you can only be 16 for a year, then  after
> that you have to deal with some aging issues," he said.

I see the Free and Open Source community maturing in the understanding of what is
needed to have a complete solution.  It is not enough just to have code.  You
need standards (www.freestandards.org) and certification (www.lpi.org) and
training (www.lintraining.com).  Some of these projects have paid staff, but most
of the work comes from the community, because they understand it is necessary.

> Microsoft is also gathering ammunition by working to dispel its own  Linux
> ignorance--for example, by hiring Linux experts such as Bill Hilf,  who built
> eToys' Web site on Linux and promoted Linux for IBM. Hilf  joined Microsoft
> in January, Taylor said. 

Hiring a Hilf will not help them much as long as they have people like Balmer
around:

>Being "first to cool" is an official corporate priority, along with 
>being first to market and first to make a lot of money, according to a 
>July speech by Chief Executive Steve Ballmer.

I read the speech.  It was mostly about making a lot of money.  Nothing wrong with
that, but it puts "coolness" as a secondary goal.

Once again, I am not saying that we should turn our backs on our major
competitor, but I do not see them making gigantic strides with this newest
announcement.  Too many people remember:

'inflammatory comments that open-source software is  a "cancer" or "un-American."'

Or should that be "un-OZ"?

md
-- 
Jon "maddog" Hall
Executive Director           Linux International(R)
email: maddog at li.org         80 Amherst St. 
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