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Linux Foundation - We'd Love to Work with Microsoft
johnno writes "In an interview with the Australian site pc world Jim Zemlin, the Linux Foundation's executive director, talks about the desire to interoperate with Microsoft and discusses the desktop outlook for Linux. He answers questions on the kind of legal protection Linux requires, whether anything ever come of the Microsoft protest that there's Linux code that they have patented, as well as Linux penetration on desktops and breaking Microsoft's stranglehold on the market. He also discusses Microsoft's recent move to open up their documentation, and why they'd like to work with the Redmond giant — 'We'd like to have a place where developers can come and work on making Linux more effectively interoperate with Microsoft products. And we'd like to do that in the open-source way that's not tied to any specific marketing agreement, that's not tied to any specific contract, that is an open process that can be participated in by anyone in the community,' Zemlin says."
Nice to see that there are Linuzz people out there that are not the archetypical rabious MS hater, but normal civic developers that want to solve the problems with cooperation and work, and not with screams of "foul!!" or "M$ is teh suck" or "Death to Closed source! (but not mine closed source, BTW)", etc.
It's time to realise that Abble's products are the biggest abomination these days. Just say NO to the dumb iAbble way!!
Sorry, yes, this is finally the year of the linux desktop!
Yeah, it's funny to pretend that an OS with less than a 1% marketshare is somehow a big player... but realistically speaking, what does Teh Lunix even bring to the table? Interop with MS is more important to Teh Lunix (WINE, anyone? Then some SAMBA?) than interop with Teh Lunix is for Windows. MS seems to have done kind of ok for themselves in the past decade without worrying too much about connecting with Teh Lunix. But how's Teh Lunix's marketshare doing, since they can't connect to Windows networks that well?
While Teh Lunix is good for certain things, I've always felt it's missing it's calling to operate in spaces nobody else is. Why FOSSies think it's a good idea to go head to head with Microsoft is beyond me. Windows has the desktop market for many reasons, and it's not because they "force" people to use Windows- if anyone says that, they deserve to be ignored.
I've never understood why more people didn't put work into making Teh Lunix friendlier for small and mobile devices. Perhaps the rationalle is that it would somehow be a step back, but the reality is that such a space is exactly where the future is. People aren't going to be carrying around AS-400s, so Teh Lunix needs to stop acting like that's the future.
Small device manufacturers are right now using a cludged together, ad hoc operating platform. There's no good standards- it works, and people are happy with that. But look at the iPhone: Apple slaps duct tapes a phone to an iPod, gets it working in a few months, and puts something close to a "real" operating system on it... and everyone is soiling their pants over it.
You guys want to take on Microsoft? Fine! Take on Windows Mobile: it's a piece of junk! Take on the iPhone, too. Take on Palm. Lunix should be lording over mobile devices. Instead, they waste time being an also-ran on the desktop, trying to out-Windows Microsoft in the market they dominate because they created it. The answer isn't to beat MS by making over a decade's worth of bad Windows 95 clones, the answer is to find a different market to dominate.