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META Predicts Linux Software From Microsoft in 2004

trandles writes "According to this story at NYTimes (FRYYY), META Group is reporting that Microsoft will begin selling Linux software in 2004. It also goes on to report that a META Group study comes to the same conclusion as the earlier (MS-funded) IDC study that Linux has a higher TCO than MS solutions for some applications." Remember, this is speculation on the part of META, and has to do with back-end software, not Office. (But if Microsoft wanted to, they could become the world's biggest producer of Linux software.)

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  1. Re:Another approach by ergo98 · · Score: 1, Troll

    Have you used Windows XP lately? Not to be a troll, but it really is faster and doesn't crash anymore... I installed it 10 days ago, and it's been up and running since, under heavy usage too, I might add...

    XP is just a minor variation of 2000, which itself is a tremendously stable operating system. Indeed, I'd carry that back as far as NT 4 which also is an incredibly stable operating system, though some aspects that weren't as intuitive caused unnecessary reboots (for instance that the task manager wouldn't kill "with extreme prejudice", leading less-skilled administrators to presume that a reboot was the only cure when the command line kill command would save the day. Thankfully XP's task manager, and presumably .NET Server 2003, kills with extreme prejudice).

    If indeed Microsoft were to respond to Linux, I see the likely response being the reduction in the cost of Windows Server licenses (perhaps making it up in software support agreements and such): Why would they move to the technically inferior design of Linux when they have a tremendously capable OS already? (I'm not trying to troll here, but the architecture and security plumbing of the NT series of OS' is tremendously good) Indeed, Microsoft is already leaning that way with a special version of Windows .NET Server for web appliances, presumably at a greatly reduced cost.