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Microsoft Doesn't Care About Destroying Linux

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the to-busy-drinking-baby-blood-i-think dept.

techie writes "A latest column on MadPenguin.org suggests that Microsoft may not be really interested in killing Linux for mainstream users. It's after something else, and it's getting its way already. Read on to find out what it is. The author states, "Love it or hate it, Microsoft's IP attacks will continue, Linux user numbers will continue to grow and broad spectrum adoption throughout the rest of the world will grow and flourish. Microsoft's not interested in destroying Linux in the slightest. Why would they? it's been a fantastic vehicle for them to land a firmer grip on the corporations throughout the US."

3 of 330 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Great, you know what that means by EvilRyry · · Score: 3, Informative

    Normally, you'd be right. Companies like to make money however they can. However this is Microsoft.

    Microsoft makes its money by controlling the market. Linux allows for multiple vendors to compete in the market (aka capitalism), preventing any one vendor from controlling it. Even if Microsoft could make a boatload of money on Linux, they would never risk their precious (and profitable!) monopoly on the OS market.

  2. Taco, please by happyfrogcow · · Score: 3, Informative

    Taco,

    Get this trash of an article off the front page. It's making /. look bad

  3. That isn't "fragmented". by khasim · · Score: 3, Informative

    But the more fragmented the Linux market is, the better MS looks as a corporate choice.

    But Linux is not "fragmented".

    Right now, I'm burning CentOS 5.0 because I don't want to pay RedHat to test and play with a new OS that I don't need support for, and it is only one of a few different RH clones.

    And each of those "clones" works in almost the exact same way.

    There is no "fragmentation". Any software that runs on the latest version of RHEL will also run on the latest version of Ubuntu. Or Slackware. etc.

    Microsoft has to be liking what it is seeing, with every day a new distribution of Linux coming out, and no single standard. Different files in different places...

    And yet that does not seem to be hampering Linux's growth at all.

    So maybe it isn't as big a problem as you believe it to be.

    Anyone who knows Red Hat can pick up Ubuntu in less than a day. And Slackware in another day. And Gentoo over a weekend. At which point, you pretty much know every distribution out there.