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Microsoft to Storm Linux Strongholds
VitaminB52 writes "Microsoft is only winning about one out of four deals where IT shops are trying to move off of proprietary Unix. To turn that trend around, there are four specific Linux strongholds where Microsoft is focusing its attention." From the article: "After discussing server clustering, Web hosting, and server appliances, Ballmer was cut off by the interviewees before he could identify the fourth. But my guess is that, given the way Ballmer emphasized Software as a Service (SaaS) as a core theme for all the work that's taking place at Microsoft right now, the fourth stronghold of Linux that Microsoft wants is the SaaS stronghold where Linux is the operating system behind a Java-based application server technology ... Ballmer knows he's got a long roe to hoe. 'The day I come in front of the Gartner audience and say we have a better Unix than Linux, that'll be a good day.'"
Why does the title give me a mental image of the scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail where King Arthur and co are trying to get into the Castle... Except it's microsoft execs being taunted by penguins. I really need some more coffee.
Meow meow meow meow, meow meow meow meow...
...is Ballmer hoeing fish eggs???
No wonder he gets angry!
Game dev and music blog
...the fourth stronghold of Linux that Microsoft wants is the SaaS stronghold where Linux is the operating system behind a Java-based application server technology
Sure, that makes sense, especially considering the big announcement last month of JBoss partnering with Microsoft to build up interoperability with Windows servers and the JEMS stuff.
When it comes to real users, bubbly GUIs like those shown in most Windows Vista screenshots do not appeal. Most serious users will mock such sassery.
When it comes to configuring Apache or a SQL database, nothing compares to being able to directly edit text files and run services easily from the command line. This is what UNIX, Linux, BSD and Solaris offers.
They'll at least need to get Monad finished, and it will have to trump the existing UNIX command line in some fashion. But if they keep throwing bubbly interfaces as professionals, the bubbly interfaces will hamper the ability of such professionals to get work done.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
From the article: ...in many of these cluster and grid scenarios -- scenarios that often involve home grown setups with versions of Linux that aren't supported by any of the various Linux distributors -- the people running them are again not incurring any licensing costs on the operating system.
Yeah... it seems like there is a basic concept here, that the kind of people who need clusters are also the kind of people who can generally take care of them, themselves. Or is Ballmer trying to suggest that MS can make clustering so easy and slick that any old researcher with a few processors could set it up?
As for the "better UNIX than Linux" quote... uh... what??? Microsoft Unix? Isn't it obvious that Solaris and AIX users migrate to Linux 75% of the time because they're familiar with the basic OS underpinnings? It's a knowledge reuse issue. Does Ballmer really expect MS to create an OS that is similar enough to capitalize on this reuse?
$nice = $webHosting + $domainNames + $sslCerts
It's everywhere, it doesn't have or need "strongholds". It simply flows to areas the economics make it useful. The implication of a stronghold is that it's good for one or two things and has to defend against instrusion by a determined foe. Very... Balmeresque... thinking.
Deleted
"...are used to having a big company behind their Unix OS and are more comfortable with Windows in general, so just that alone works against Linux migration"
Execs are warming up to Red Hat and Novell. They know IBM and other large companies are behind Linux. They are learning that they can get "enterprise" support.
What will really change things is when today's 15 - 30 year olds are more often the people making the decisions. Many young people have grown up messing around with Linux. High school students are installing it on old computers right now. Once there is a generation of execs comfortable with Linux you'll see major migration rates.
The global economy is a great thing until you feel it locally.
First -- If SFU isn't the answer, make it the answer. There's no technical reason Windows can't have a good Unix environment on top of it. Get some sort of *nix-like package management on top of it so the OSS world can build and distribute tools. Build in a "registry file system" or whatever you need to make *nix tools work better on the Windows OS.
.NET, MS should provide better support for J2EE vendors like JBoss or BEA. (I read the biggest chunk of MS's "enterprise" penetration is actually as a platform for running Java servers.)
Second -- Apache. There's no reason people should have to run IIS, so build up Apache to be first class on Win32. Give it windows authentication and a GUI manager.
Third -- Java. It's not going away, so even with
You're right that POSIX->Win32 is a bogus migration plan. So the real solution is to provide better *nix-like tools that bridge the gap between the unix world and the Windows OS. If the capabilities are there, people will migrate.
Business. Numbers. Money. People. Computer World.
New research and office space, ~300 users. MS came in with a partner firm and said they could make all this work for "only" $1.5M over 3 years. 12 servers (Yeah 12!), one each for email/exchange, AD, file, dns, dialup, blackberry, applications, etc.
I presented something which will cost ~$90K for the hardware, zip for the software and give us more. The users will still have Windows on the desktop and won't care about the backend stuff. And I know this will work, it's a virtual duplicate of 2 other places I set up for this org.
MS & partner firm hate me.
Actually, it's already happened. Sun is getting widely dumped in favor of RedHat/x86, who is seen as an top-tier enterprise vendor in Sun's traditional strongholds. As a result they've been forced to adopt a very aggressive x64 strategy.
Business. Numbers. Money. People. Computer World.
For me, it has nothing to do with humiliation.
A Unix admin with some experience has had the opportunity to become more and more effective. It has to do with tweaking the routine, making shell scripts which makes your job much easier, and generally working with the command line. As time goes and knowledge comes, one can have a remarkable arsenal of scripts and tools at hand. Since most stuff is quite portable (you can compile bash or any other shell of your preference for every Unix there is, I think), and the *basic* unix things can be expected to be there always, one tends to rely on it in ones day-to-day tasks, and reuse whatever can be reused as new Unix-machines comes in.
Windows, however, isn't like that. At least not initially. Good Windows-admins know their way in the GUIs, know exactly where to click, and can navigate quickly to get stuff done.
I know you can script, you can do *some* stuff from the command line, but it quickly becomes a challenge, and of the wrong kind. You can get a bit of the way with Cygwin and such, but you'll end up constantly trying to make Windows into Unix.
Never mind that all monitoring-tools, scripts, things set up to run through cron, and all that stuff, has to be changed. No, a Unix admin truly does *not* want to migrate to windows. I know, I am one.
Gates: Hallo! Hallo!
Mandriva: 'Allo! Who is it?
G: It is King Bill, and these are the Programers of the Square Table. Who's castle is this?
M: This is the castle of my master, Guy de Linus!
G: Go and tell your master that I have charged myself with a sacred quest. If he will give us food and shelter for the night he can join us in our quest for the Holy OS.
M: Well, I'll ask him, but I don't think he'll be very keen... Uh, he's already got one, you see?
G: What?
Balmer: He says they've already got one!
G: Are you sure he's got one?
M: Oh, yes, it's very nice-a (I told him we already got one)
G: Well, um, can we come up and have a look?
M: Of course not! You are Windows types-a!
G: Well, what are you then?
M: I'm Linux! Why do think I have this outrageous accent, you silly king!
B: What are you doing in our computers?
M: Mind your own business!
G: If you will not show us the OS, we shall take your castle by force!
M: You don't frighten us, Windows pig-dogs! Go and boil your bottoms, sons of a silly person. I blow my nose at you, so-called Bill-king, you and all your silly Windows kaniggets. Thppppt!
B: What a strange person.
G: Now look here, my good man!
M: I don't want to talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough water! I fart in your general direction! You mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!
B: Is there someone else up there we could talk to?
M: No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time-a!
...Novell/Suse on Intel and AMD powered boxen is making major headway as well. On the other hand there is also plenty of MCSE/MCSA people on their way into management and not just Linux fans. There will be a continuing migration from the old UNIX brands like Sun for example to Linux as Linux matures but I would not expect any migration from Windows to Linux to become an uncontrollable Exodus.
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
Doug - a genuine Cluster Monkey
HPC for Primates. Read Cluster Monkey