Bob Muglia on Longhorn Server, Linux and Blackcomb

An anonymous reader writes "In a wide-ranging interview, Microsoft's senior VP Bob Muglia talks about the work involved in getting Longhorn Server out by 2007. He also gives the lowdown on the next major release of Windows Server, code-named Blackcomb. 'If Indigo (a major feature of Longhorn) took four years to develop, some major infrastructure things inside Blackcomb will also take four years to develop,' Muglia said. On competition from Linux, he said: 'When I think of Linux, I don't think about it as our competitor. I think about Linux as a technology that is used by our competitors to build competitive offerings.' Very different from what Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates have been saying but Muglia says he's trying to teach them a thing or two."

Comments

Re:Interview summary.

[hdparm]

Well, that's exactly what VP said, so if you were going to give a shot at trolling - tough luck.

I can't believe all "Smart Guy"/"Clever Guy" posts little above - do people actually think that one stays at MS for 16 years and becomes VP for being reasonable?

Is Blackbomb An Upgrade to Blue Screen?

[$criptah]

On a more serious note, I think that the best thing M$ can do right now is to work on PR. They have a proven record of releasing sub-standard software applications; therefore, unless they truly come up with something original and stable, they should keep their mouths shut. Empty promises hurt their PR just as much as lousy software they manage to mint every once in a while.

He is right about Linux though. I do not see Linux replacing Windows on a desktop anytime soon. There are several reasons for that.

First of all, people do not like change. There is a good Russian saying that one says to an enemy "I wish you to live in the time of changes." That can be applied to software and IT industry because nowadays some companies will perfer to have MS based solutions because that is what they know and because they do not need to invest money into something that *might* work for them.

Secondly, Linux does not have to compete with MS; it has won the server market already. Free Unices and Linux are not the questions, they are the answers for companies with various business models. Fortunately, M$ has a long way to go if it wants to compete with Open Source on the server market.

Re:Quite right

[Cro Magnon]

Actually, GNU/Linux isn't really a competitor. Redhat, with a Linux kernel, GNU software, X, and Gnome is a serious competitor. SuSe is another serious competitor with KDE instead of Gnome. Mandrake is yet another competitor. Debian probably doesn't qualify as a competitor, but there are several Debian-based distros that do. And, if any of the current distros go under, it wouldn't be that hard for someone else to create yet another GNU/Linux based distro to compete with MS.