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Microsoft Names Linux its Number Two Risk
Jorkapp writes "Microsoft has officially moved Linux up to the Number 2 Risk to the company (With Economic Environment at No. 1). Bill Gates has taken the threat very seriously, and has identified Linux and non-commercial software as 'out there and very pervasive.' In response, Microsoft has dropped the price of Windows CE and opened the embedded OS to developers. This will not only allow developers to view and modify CE, but also distribute software incorporated to the modified code."
This is just MSFT trying to act all big, oh pshaw, Linux, one can hardly muster a whim about it. Well, it is a tried and true method. I mean, at Coca-Cola back in the day, they barely even considered a little startup called Pepsi. They mocked it internally, thinking that they were the big guy and the "P-cola" would never amount to much. Of course, when it gained steam by targeting a younger audience, they panicked and launched "New Coke". Yeah. I think we know the rest of that story.
n0nsensical :"Isn't Microsoft just making more and more people aware of Linux and how good of a Windows replacement it's becoming? Seems sort of counter-productive to give your #2 threat a lot of free publicity. Doesn't seem like the sort of thing a huge company would tell the public. But hey, I'm not complaining. "
:)
Microsoft made Netscape their # 1 threat back in 1996...and as they say, the rest is history and so is Netscape
Look what happened to them.
Microsoft also zeroed in on Palm back in 1998. Today, Microsoft has gone from 0% share to some 32% and rising share in the pda market, meanwhile Palm OS share has been falling every single year sine.
As for Linux, figures from Netcraft this week are shwoing Windows 2003 taking share from linux in the web server market, with some 8000 linux servers having switched to Windows 2003 already!
I wouldn't be so pleased if I were you.
From what I have seen , Microsoft has trained its guns on linux but good. Watch out!