GoDaddy.com Dumps Linux for Microsoft

RobertB-DC writes "Bargain-basement registrar GoDaddy.com has decided to move all its parked domains to Microsoft servers, saying that they'll provide 'a technology platform that is security-enhanced, highly scalable and easy to manage.' This is a shift away from Linux, a decision met with derision by other registrars such as Gandi.net, which greeted the news with the headline 'Go Daddy and never come back'. Late last year, GoDaddy.com had some 'issues', shall we say, with non-Microsoft browsers."

Comments

I saw the go daddy pres/CTO speak a while back

[notaprguy]

They talked about moving to Windows and said, basically, that the costs roughly in line with Linux when you take into account administration/management costs and that MSFT was bending over backwards to meet their needs. They liked MSFT's customer service. They like ASP.NET because of the capabilities it provides. They like MSFT's vision and...most important of all...their customers liked the results when they used Windows hosting sevices.

Re:It's just an OS

[Foofoobar]

Actually, MySQL overtook Oracle last year as the number one most popular database and is installed on over 55% of ALL servers (not just web servers). Apache still holds rein as the king of web servers with 70% and the most common web server is still Linux with over 60% of the market. PHP is the number one Apache mod and is in the top 4 of programming languages on the Tiobe Index.

Keep in mind that these stats are for web servers... not ALL servers.

So yes... those stats are fairly accurate... though 70% may be high, I would say in the mid to high 60 percentile range is not unreasonable.

Re:Who cares?

[JordanL]

Well I just called in about the 1 domain I have there, and they flat out told me that none of their domain servers and/or name servers are IIS or will be moving to IIS. A closer look at the article reveals the openning statement:

Microsoft Corp. today announced that GoDaddy.com®

Perhaps MS misunderstood what their product was being purchased for? Or maybe I was being lied to...

Re:Who cares?

[Denney]

The actual press-release on Yahoo! Finance states "Go Daddy® will have moved all its parked domains from Linux to the Windows platform." That does not include domain servers or name servers. If my understanding is correct, parked domains are on one set of servers, while all the other services are being provided from other sets of servers. Thus, I think you were told the truth by the GoDaddy folks, and Microsoft is also telling the correct story, although the heading of the Press Release makes the news sound bigger than it really is.

Re:Well, then.

[geniusj]

I was involved in this project, and I'm pretty sure I can relay the following information at the least:

    The only thing that has changed are our PARKED web servers. Linux and open source is still used in many other places that are not changing. I can't go into specifics on this stuff, but I just wanted to clarify that that is all that changed. Hosting is still offered under both Linux/PHP (and I believe RoR) and Windows/ASP, and Linux is hosting many other systems as well.

Re:Microsoft probably paid them for this...

[The Famous Brett Wat]

It's a fair assumption. Microsoft have been playing this game for quite a long time now. Look, for example, at Netcraft's April 2002 survey. This is about as close as Microsoft ever got to Apache in market share. Consider the following quotation from that page.

Some of the big moves are because Microsoft has been able to identify people who control very large numbers of sites, are not bound tightly to a particular technology, and persuade them to switch to Microsoft servers. The leading domain registrars, Verisign and register.com, are prime examples of this.

"Per$uade", or "purse-swayed", I'm sure.

Attempts to purchase survey results like this seem a little desparate to me, given the long term trend. Still, you can get an idea of the effect Microsoft is purchasing by looking at the January 2006 survey, where Apache lost nearly a million sites worth of share to the "other" category thanks to a bit of tweaking by GoDaddy. See that page for more detail.

Re:Who cares?

[ImaLamer]

I own two domains that are "parked" there until I can use them (i.e. iheartje.ws) and who cares? Their parked domains have no reason to really stay online. They exist to advertise for GoDaddy and their minions until you setup shop. In a way I assume that is why there are so many sales at GoDaddy.

No matter you can get Linux & Windows (shared) hosting still:

https://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/hosting/shared.asp

and it's all Fedora on the dedicated side:

https://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/hosting/dedicated.a sp

Not really a story.

Misinterpretation

[pingveno]

They are not removing their Linux hosting. Go to godaddy.com, Hosting & Servers, Virtual Dedicated Servers. All of the preconfigured plans use Red Hat Fedora Core 2. The "Hosting Plans" section of their web site allows the user a choice between Fedora and Windows. This move to Windows is in just in a certain part of their system. Removing support for Linux web servers would be suicide. Microsoft's web serving numbers aren't going anywhere from this decision.

Re:Incredible!

[raju1kabir]

Except if Indians start using roman letters, I believe translation is opened... therefore, Gandi, Ghandi and Gandhi, as long as they sounds the same, are conceptually equal, and should be considered as such.

They don't sound the same.

GH is a softer sound than G.

DH is a softer sound than D, pronounced with the tongue flatter against the roof of the mouth.

In Hindi, I believe that D and G without the softening 'H" simply don't exist (but could be wrong). In Arabic, 'D' and 'DH' are completely different letters, likewise 'G' (Egyptian, anyway) and 'GH'. Baghdad is not pronounced Bagdad; the GH should sound like a French R. They aren't any more the same than 'Mop" and 'Top' are.