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Microsoft Phasing Out FAST Search For Linux, Unix
viralMeme writes "Microsoft plans to begin phasing out Unix and Linux platform support for its FAST enterprise search products, as of its next release. According to a Thursday blog post from Microsoft Distinguished Engineer Bjørn Olstad, 'We’ve continued to sell, support, and update the Linux and UNIX versions of FAST ESP, and we’ve designed the next wave of FAST products (scheduled for release in the first half of calendar year 2010) to include a cross-platform search core that has been extended to take advantage of web services and support mixed-platform deployment models. With our 2010 products scheduled for release in a few months, we’ve just started to plan for our next wave of products. As a part of that planning process, we have decided that in order to deliver more innovation per release in the future, the 2010 products will be the last to include a search core that runs on Linux and UNIX. Many of our customers run FAST ESP on Linux and UNIX today, and we recognize that our future focus on Windows means change. To ease the transition, we’re investing in interoperability between Windows and other operating systems, reaffirming our commitment to 10 years of support for our non-Windows products, and taking concrete steps to help customers plan for the future.'"
It's a clear sign that MS still has a (probably growing) fear of *nix, especially Linux.
It's also an opportunity for some enterprising company or group to fill the void. All it will do is cost MS some sales. I doubt many organizations will migrate to Windows Server just for FAST.
"...As a part of that planning process, we have decided that in order to deliver more innovation per release in the future, the 2010 products will be the last to include a search core that runs on Linux and UNIX...."
Translation:
"We are canning Linux and UNIX support to solidify Microsoft lock-in."
"...and taking concrete steps to help customers plan for the future."
Reads:
"We'll try to force everyone to use Windows in the future."
Well...who expected something different anyway?
Linux is getting better and better, with more features added, and I'm not a pawn in corporate revenue/greed/forced upgrade strategy.
Thanks Linux.
F.U. Microsoft.
All hail the IT monoculture! Praise and glory to the brand!
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
Yes, but how much does it hurt the world to be squeezed out through someone's fingers...
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
FAST died on the vine a long time ago. It was a dot-com that just missed the tail of the dot-com mania. So they sold their hype to Microsoft and then disappeared off the face of the planet until this week. Track down the marketeers that stired up the FAST mud again.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
That's measured in units of "we only know how to program in VB" but you can probably also eyeball the results in units of "this is where we push our lock-in velocity to plaid".
amazing how nobody saw that one coming...
Seriously, folks, is this really news? I'd imagine that when Microsoft does a takeover these days, one of the criteria they're using is "are we going to have a repeat of the Hotmail clusterfuck?" They were planning on doing this before they bought the company, and the only question was when and what excuse they'd be using...
c.
Log in or piss off.
This is exactly why nobody should ever get sucked into Microsoft 'interoperability' ploys. They are not about interoperability. They are always about extending the MS monopoly into areas that they could not reach without paying lip service to interoperability.
Posted from my Android phone. Oh, I can change this? There, that's better...