Slashdot Mirror
Ex-Microsofter Rick Belluzzo Prefers Linux
keird writes "I'm sure you all remember Belluzzo being pushed out of Microsoft earlier this year. ComputerWorld has a short, but interesting interview with him where he talks about why his new employer, Quantum uses Linux in their appliances." From reading the interview, Belluzzo seems to be pretty amicable to whatever will get the job done, and in this case, it's Linux.
But they are fighting an uphill battle against free-and-open in that space
.NET, while on the other end they're pushing Websphere and J2EE.
One thing that should be pointed out is that with Windows PocketPC, for instance, the Platform Builder basically includes the source code for the entire platform, and you tailer the build to target your device/system (and of course you can change anything in the code that you want). Open source, in that you can modify it, but not free.
However it should be noted that this idea that Windows had the market and Linux is not taking it is incorrect: A slew of `proprietary' OS' owned embedded devices, but then Windows, and pretty much at the same time Linux, decided to get in it. Microsoft has had a hard time mostly because they're Microsoft: A lot of companies won't partner with them because they are branches of companies that compete with Microsoft in other areas (one of those pitfalls for both companies in that their strategy open remains static across the organization).
You know that points out one of the best companies for avoiding those sorts of constraints on their decisions: IBM. IBM has always impressed me in that they're looking out for IBM (which is what all companies should be doing): They push Linux from one side while building high end Windows servers in another. They'll partner with Microsoft for