Microsoft's Chief Linux Strategist Interviewed

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Microsoft's Chief Linux Strategist Interviewed

Posted by CowboyNeal on Friday September 17, 2004 @12:06AM from the shape-of-things-to-come dept.

sl0wp0is0n writes "Computerworld has published an interview with Microsoft's chief Linux strategist, Martin Taylor. It's interesting to find out that Microsoft thinks and predicts Novell (SuSE) will be the dominant Linux distribution they'll have to compete against. The interview also has Taylor talking about indemnification, IBM and his realization that customers generally adopt Linux to get a better TCO than Unix, not Windows."

17 of 369 comments (clear)

This has got to please IBM...not by smittyoneeach · 2004-09-17 00:12 · Score: 5, Funny

So you think, in the long term, Novell is your greatest Linux competitor?
After the Great OS2/WindowsNT Divorce, and all of those cool Developer Works articles since, IBM still can't get no lovin' in Redmond...

--
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
1. Re:This has got to please IBM...not by feargal · 2004-09-17 03:28 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Man, MS are just trolling.
  
  They announce that Novell is the best disribution, and you'll spend weeks arguing over it, instead of writing any code.
  
  I predict in about 3 weeks time, another MS exec will let slip that Gnome will be the dominant linux desktop, and a few weeks later, they'll claim BSD is dying.
  
  I just pity the journos present at their technology demonstration show when they present WinGoat Special Edition...
  
  --
  "A goldfish was his muse, eternally amused"
Competition by 2$+Crack+Whore · 2004-09-17 00:13 · Score: 1, Funny

It's interesting to find out that Microsoft thinks and predicts Novell (SuSE) will be the dominant Linux distribution they'll have to compete against.

Novell? They'll be lucky....more like Knoppix!!
1. Re:Competition by Spad · 2004-09-17 00:16 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Yeah, because everyone wants to run their OS off a CD.
I can't work out what this means by random_rabbit · 2004-09-17 00:15 · Score: 5, Funny

And you can end up with Linux not being Linux, but Red Hat Linux being different than Novell SUSE Linux, Debian Linux and Mandrake, or whatever the case is. We're already beginning to see some of that with how they're taking snapshots of the kernel, where the kernel is and putting it into their distributions.

Could anyone explain that to me? This guy is explaining that people put KERNELS into DISTRIBUTIONS?
1. Re:I can't work out what this means by kn64 · 2004-09-17 00:24 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  Redhat have crossed the line this time, putting a kernel into their distribution! I'm boycotting them, and I encourage you all to join me!
2. Re:I can't work out what this means by Anonymous Coward · 2004-09-17 02:12 · Score: 1, Funny
  
  It's the stack of banknotes the stack of sales guys get for reeling off a stack of buzzwords that they don't fully understand and successfully selling more stacks of shit software to stacks more gullable corporate IT buyers.
3. Re:I can't work out what this means by faceonbackward · 2004-09-17 02:19 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  I'm calling the metaphor police.
Really? by ShadeARG · 2004-09-17 00:17 · Score: 4, Funny

From TFA:
When you're getting something for free, [vendors] get a lot of "get out of jail free" cards. You see [people saying], "Oh well. We didn't pay for it anyway, so we shouldn't care too much about security. We'll fix it ourselves. Oh, there's no regression testing. Who cares? We'll do that ourselves." But once you start writing a check, you now have demands, and rightfully so.
Pot. Kettle. Black.
Re:I am tired... by michael+path · 2004-09-17 00:17 · Score: 1, Funny

It could have been stranger:

An Interview With Microsoft Linux's Chief Strategist, Bruce Perens
Microsoft's Chief Linux Strategist? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-09-17 00:35 · Score: 5, Funny

You got to love the title.

It's like:
Chinese government's Chief human rights activist.

Vatican's Chief birth control strategist.

McDonald's Chief vegetarian strategist.

What a great title!
1. Re:Microsoft's Chief Linux Strategist? by b166er_zeroone · 2004-09-17 02:50 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  Or like: American Joint Chief of Staff for Prisoner Abuse Watch ain't it?
Indeed, by warrax_666 · 2004-09-17 00:39 · Score: 1, Funny

I mean, when have you ever heard of any reasonably competent Windows admin (yes, they do exist!) installing, say, a service pack without some serious testing beforehand?

--
HAND.
GNU by wikinerd · 2004-09-17 00:52 · Score: 5, Funny

It should be Microsoft's Chief GNU/Linux Strategist, except if they feel that only the kernel threatens them.
Re:TCO ~! TCU by Arslan+ibn+Da'ud · 2004-09-17 00:55 · Score: 2, Funny

Total cost of Ownership ?
I thought and it was Microsoft and its BSA/SPA satellite that software could not be owned, hence the EULAs.
So, they imply one might OWN a system ?

Oh, OWNing a system is easy...especially if it has as many security holes as Windows!

<ducks>

--
Practice Kind Randomness and Beautiful Acts of Nonsense.
Re:Really an anti-Linux strategist by LiquidCoooled · 2004-09-17 01:01 · Score: 2, Funny

It's rumored that Microsoft has in the past hired actors to behave like really obnoxious Linux fanboys at trade shows, damaging Linux's image

No, that was just the OSDN yearly outing. Taco just looks on with dismay as CowboyNeal goes mental!

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liqbase :: faster than paper
Re:Really an anti-Linux strategist by killjoe · 2004-09-17 04:38 · Score: 2, Funny

" LOL sorry, but I find it hard to believe MS found it necessary to pay people to act like really obnoxious Linux fanboys."

Yes they are much too ethical and moral to do anything like that.

--
evil is as evil does