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Linux Receives 20th Birthday Video From Microsoft
moonbender writes "The Linux kernel has received birthday wishes from an unexpected direction — a video animation from Microsoft. Quoting The H: 'The video picks up on the strained relationship between Microsoft and Linux by displaying the phrase "Microsoft Vs. Linux" and then showing Tux, the Linux mascot, turning his back on the offer of a birthday cake from Microsoft. After a brief outline of the history between Microsoft and Linux, the video ends with a conciliatory gesture: Tux accepts the birthday cake in his igloo and the video ends with "Happy Birthday" and the editing of the initial phrase to "Microsoft and Linux?' The Linux Foundation has more stuff celebrating the kernel's 20th birthday."
With the way the Apple juggernaut has been steamrolling it would make sense to me for Microsoft and Open Source in general to find a way of co-existing. Say what you want about Microsoft, but Apple's heavy-handed, strict controls and policies makes Microsoft look like a pussy cat in comparison.
The bottom line is, these are all big BUSINESSES, with an unwavering goal of maximizing profits for their shareholders. When you see all of this "back and forth" between competitors, where one month they're bashing each other and the next, their CEOs are on TV together acting friendly? Remember that NONE of it really means much.
I'm pretty sure that on a personal level, almost all of these tech company "higher ups" have mutual respect for each other. After all, people in similar income brackets tend to have a lot of common interests. (A Bill Gates type isn't likely to have a lot of fun going on the same discounted vacation cruises that your typical family signs up for in the summer, etc. Your idea of a "nice hotel" and his probably aren't the same, nor are your typical "good, yet affordable" restaurant choices, right?) And they share a common interest in furthering high-tech products or services for the masses in SOME manner, even if they differ on the details of exactly HOW they think the future should unfold with them.
By the same token, most of the employees of these firms are just software developers, systems administrators and Q.A. testers trying to earn a paycheck in their field of interest. Guys I knew who coded apps for Microsoft often used Linux or a Mac at home, even if they really liked what Microsoft was doing. (Hey, if nothing else, it's refreshing to come home to something different than what you've got to use at work all day long!)
I'm pretty sure a lot of this animosity we hear of between competitors is cooked up by P.R. and marketing/advertising types. If you've got a product you can get people to rally behind, it's very profitable to pretend you're at "war" with the competition -- even if the C.E.O. of the main competitor is one of your company's C.E.O.'s drinking buddies and they negotiate co-operative deals in the background on a regular basis.