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Head of Oracle Linux Moves To Microsoft (zdnet.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the on-a-whim dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Wim Coekaerts, formerly Oracle's Senior VP of Linux and Virtualization Engineering, has left Oracle for Microsoft. Many of you may know of Coekaerts as "Mr. Linux" as he delivered the first Linux products, transitioned Oracle's programming staff from Windows to Linux desktops, and turned Oracle into a Linux distributor with the launch of its Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) clone, Oracle Linux. Mike Neil, Microsoft's Corporate Vice President of the Enterprise Cloud, told ZDNet, "Wim Coekaerts has joined Microsoft as Corp VP of Open Source in our Enterprise Cloud Group. As we continue to deepen our commitment to open source, Wim will focus on deepening our engagement, contributions and innovation to the open-source community."

95 comments

  1. Money Talks by ISoldat53 · · Score: 1

    Still

    1. Re:Money Talks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And bullshit walks...

    2. Re:Money Talks by ebvwfbw · · Score: 1

      Man you have that one right!

  2. Seen this before? by Enforcer-99 · · Score: 1, Informative

    Embrace, extend and extinguish

    1. Re:Seen this before? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Many a Linux guy has gone through Microsofts training lab. I think they called it their Linux Lab. After they ran the lab for a bit, and got drinking the koolaid, they moved into marketing positions working on ways to get customers to use Windows instead of Linux.

      Does a new CEO, one trained by Bill Gates himself, mean this time it will be different? Doubtful.

    2. Re:Seen this before? by Natales · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Not this time. I think this is an acknowledgment that they need to rethink what's important, and it's not the OS anymore. It's the Cloud (both, IaaS and PaaS), where AWS is the biggest competitor and the one to beat, reason why Azure is so strategic for Microsoft. They need to have expertise and business solutions whatever underlying OS the customer may choose. If Linux, they need to have an outstanding support for it in Azure and across all their offerings.

      We may think this is the same old Microsoft, but I believe they are going through one of their biggest reinventions to date.

    3. Re:Seen this before? by Burz · · Score: 1, Troll

      So that stack of patents they are using to collect from Android -- but won't acknowledge to the public -- Is that part of the "rethink"?

      How about all the open formats that Windows ignores? And my favorite... being told I need to reformat an external drive "in order to use it", when it already has EXT4 (and data!) on it. Apparently it would just kill MS to tell users the device contains a Linux format that can't be mounted. HOW FRIENDLY!

      In the web space, they are desperate for Azure to compete with FOSS, so they will support FOSS middleware; MS views the hypervisor as the new OS and getting hardware to support your proprietary "OS" as defacto-standard is the first step to locking-out alternatives.

      At the personal tech. level, however, not even the pretense of being FOSS-friendly is there.

    4. Re:Seen this before? by Burz · · Score: 2

      I should have also mentioned that Hyper-V is the Azure hypervisor, which is competing with Xen used by AWS. Both hypervisors are the "bare metal" type.

    5. Re:Seen this before? by dontbemad · · Score: 4, Interesting

      At the personal tech. level, however, not even the pretense of being FOSS-friendly is there.

      Small steps, friend. As a "personal" user of Windows, as well as a developer, I can't tell you how excited I am to see the .Net framework open-sourced, Xamarin made free, Visual Studio given a powerful free version, and just the many other changes that have been made recently at the company. These have huge implications for the amount of small-scale, well functioning open-source projects that can start to exist for Windows now.

      Yeah, Microsoft isn't quite matching RMS's level of enthusiasm for FOSS, either in the enterprise or on the personal computing level, but I think the behemoth has to move at a slow pace, at least for now, to shake off all the rust that has accumulated under Ballmer's reign. I like what I'm seeing so far, and I'm excited to see where it goes.

    6. Re:Seen this before? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oracle. The "O" reminds their salesmen which part of your body they're aiming for.

    7. Re:Seen this before? by EETech1 · · Score: 1

      How long before MSLinux?

    8. Re:Seen this before? by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      So that stack of patents they are using to collect from Android -- but won't acknowledge to the public -- Is that part of the "rethink"?

      Implying that rethink is an all or nothing, black and white approach?

      I see this brought up every time this is discussed, MS can most definitely contribute to open source (a philosophy) while continuing to extract loads of money from Android (a specific project) vendors.

    9. Re:Seen this before? by Barlo_Mung_42 · · Score: 1

      Did you know they're bringing the bash she'll to Windows?
      Do you realize how much code they're making open source?
      This really isn't the same MS. Sure they still want to make money, but who doesn't?

    10. Re:Seen this before? by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      I don't know what *he's* implying, but I won't trust MS as long as they abusively sue, or threaten to sue, over patents that either they won't specify, that are obviously invalid, or both.

      You can't threaten to sue over the unspecified. They start with licensing, then if licensing breaks down they sue. That again has nothing to do with open source and everything to do with taking in money from a purchased patent portfolio. By the way the patents in question are: http://images.mofcom.gov.cn/pe.... Refusing to specify them does not make them obviously invalid.

      Just because defending against a patent lawsuit is too expensive to survive does not make the patent valid. It merely makes the litigant someone who should be harmed in any way feasible.

      Yes poor Samsung, HTC, and Acer, they would never survive if they went to court on a patent lawsuit. /sarcasm. This point closes the loop nicely with your earlier claim, given that Microsoft rake in $billions from companies who can afford the litigation and who have crack legal teams of their own, I'm going to err on the side of the patents being very valid, and in the ownership of a practising entity that actually produces things.

      On the scale of shit-in-the-patent-world this doesn't worry me one bit.

    11. Re:Seen this before? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Embrace, extend and extinguish

      No, no we have not seen that before. In fact even in the very context in which that phrase was coined (Java) we did not see such a thing yet to this day morons still put a post with that and nothing more -- not even what they think it might mean in this context and then other morons upmod it. So I'm curious, what exactly do you mean when you use that term in this context? What is the thing that will be "embraced, extended and extinguished" and how might such a thing happen?

    12. Re:Seen this before? by exomondo · · Score: 1

      Embrace, extend and extinguish what?

    13. Re:Seen this before? by fox171171 · · Score: 1

      If you can't beat 'em, join 'em... and then take over.

    14. Re:Seen this before? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Freedom

      The plan is to have a Linux dist license M$ BS patents ( they could be broken in court at $10,000,000 per patent ) - use it as a way to attack free (as in freedom ) distros - like Debian, Gentoo, Slackware etc..

      Now if M$ had a clue they would offer only a desktop to load on top of Linux - less to maintain. As they continue to lose market share to rivals, they will start doing desperate things that hurt others.

    15. Re:Seen this before? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So that stack of patents they are using to collect from Android -- but won't acknowledge to the public -- Is that part of the "rethink"?

      No that's not even related to this. But if Samsung is willing to go up against the richest tech firm in the world, Apple, over patents then they would not hesitate to call out invalid patents from Microsoft yet they pay to license them instead. So Im not sure why you think patent agreements have anything to do with this.

      How about all the open formats that Windows ignores? And my favorite... being told I need to reformat an external drive "in order to use it", when it already has EXT4 (and data!) on it.

      Why have a closed source, proprietary reader for an open format? One can quite easily write an open source extension to support any open format they wish.

      Apparently it would just kill MS to tell users the device contains a Linux format that can't be mounted. HOW FRIENDLY!

      ext4 is not a "Linux format".

      In the web space, they are desperate for Azure to compete with FOSS, so they will support FOSS middleware; MS views the hypervisor as the new OS and getting hardware to support your proprietary "OS" as defacto-standard is the first step to locking-out alternatives.

      What an excellent strategy that would be, lock out alternatives from your own platform. They are realizing that they can leverage FOSS just like other companies (Google and Apple for example) to extend it and make it work for them, there's no reason to not support it when it makes them money. It isnt that they are competing with FOSS, they are supporting it and even contributing to it so they can support it better because developers want to use it and that in turn makes money for Microsoft.

    16. Re:Seen this before? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      but its all a big scam! embrace, extend, extinguish! they will create these products and then kill them!

      seriously though many people (mostly on this website) will find some distorted way to come up with a conspiracy theory for anything microsoft does. like when they killed off silverlight in favor of supporting the HTML5 standard over proprietary plugins. you saw the same sort of "extinguish" irrational stupidity here of microsoft "screwing over developers", like all of a sudden web standards were bad and proprietary plugins were good just because that's the opposite of what microsoft was doing.

    17. Re:Seen this before? by sydbarrett74 · · Score: 1

      Yeah, Microsoft isn't quite matching RMS's level of enthusiasm for FOSS, either in the enterprise or on the personal computing level, but I think the behemoth has to move at a slow pace, at least for now,

      Exactly. RMS doesn't have shareholders to placate, so he can afford to be ideological. MS has many more constituencies and priorities to juggle, so there is much more inertia. It's also pretty obvious that there are competing factions within MS with different visions. Hopefully Nadella will listen to the engineers and politely tell the marketdroids to get bent.

      --
      'He who has to break a thing to find out what it is, has left the path of wisdom.' -- Gandalf to Saruman
    18. Re:Seen this before? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not this time. I think this is an acknowledgment that they need to rethink what's important, and it's not the OS anymore. It's the Cloud (both, IaaS and PaaS), where AWS is the biggest competitor and the one to beat, reason why Azure is so strategic for Microsoft. They need to have expertise and business solutions whatever underlying OS the customer may choose. If Linux, they need to have an outstanding support for it in Azure and across all their offerings.

      We may think this is the same old Microsoft, but I believe they are going through one of their biggest reinventions to date.

      How much did those assholes pay you to post this bullshit? It's Microsoft. They're motto is BE FUCKING EVIL. Fuck them, and fuck him.

      Fuck Microsoft, for ever and ever. There can be no forgiveness for the damage they've done, even if they were to give back all the money they stole from everyone over the years. All those billions of dollars that Microsoft hoarded? All basically stolen money. They should have been broken up way back when, and the entire board and headquarters personnel sent to jail. They weren't because perhaps they'd bought the right people. Who knows?

      In any case, Microsoft is a corporation that is just lucky it's rich. I can't WAIT for them to go out of business. It's going to be such a great, wonderful, beautiful day! You can help make it happen too! Here's what you can do:

      1. Don't buy any of their crappy Windows Phones or Surface "tablet" laptops.
      2. Don't buy computers that come with Windows or other Microsoft software pre-installed. Why not buy a Mac from Apple, instead? Sure it's more expensive, but that's because it's BETTER. UNIX > WINDOWS. Always was, always will be, and in every way. Don't forget that while using Windows might seem cheaper, it's only cheaper UP FRONT. The damage done in terms of lost productivity, frustration causing stress that shortens your lifespan, costs MORE than you saved using Windows. Plus, it's been scientifically proven that using Windows LOWERS YOUR I.Q., and causes E.D. over time. If you don't like either of those options, and given how Apple seems to be slowly turning into Microsoft, who can blame you, perhaps try going straight to Unix, (such as by using one of the BSD's,) or a Unix-like environment, which you can get by using GNU/Linux, which is also free?
      3. Don't use Microsoft "productivity" software, designed to be incompatible with anything else, and requiring you either to pay over and over again for the same software, or subscribing and paying them again and again over time. Use instead one of many better alternatives, such as LibreOffice, or... um... LibreOffice? There are, I'm sure, others, but why bother with them?
      4. Don't buy software written for MS Windows, even if you can make it work using an emulator, etc. It just encourages software developers to write code for Windows, the availability and proliferation of which supports Microsoft.
      5. Help others to escape the Microsoft Monopoly by teaching them to use FL/OSS instead, such as GNU/Linux, or any of the free versions or variants of Unix, or chip in and buy them nice, used Apple computers that run OS X, (which is itself a Unix,) and hold their hands while they learn to become truly productive, and wash the stench of Microsoft off them. It's the least you can do, really.

      Friends don't let friends use crippled, defective-and-unsecure-by-design, planned-obsolescent, garbage-ware from Microsoft.

      Does this sound like "trolling"? Or "flame-baiting?" It's not. It's the truth. Microsoft's products are shit, always have been, always will be. The truth may hurt, but it doesn't stop it from being the truth. I'm no fan of Apple, (the company,) but they do make a pretty awesome product, and after having tried everything you can think of, I ended up going to and staying with Apple, because their products are quite simply superior. Sorry, but it's true. There's a reason they're the most valuable company on Earth, and they didn't have to cheat to get there, unlike some FORMERLY highly-valued, but dying companies I can think of, like Microsoft.

    19. Re:Seen this before? by exomondo · · Score: 1

      The plan is to have a Linux dist license M$ BS patents ( they could be broken in court at $10,000,000 per patent ) - use it as a way to attack free (as in freedom ) distros - like Debian, Gentoo, Slackware etc..

      If they make a custom distribution that incorporates their patented software that doesn't affect free distros like Debian, Gentoo or Slackware at all, much less 'attack' them.

    20. Re:Seen this before? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So your saying that Microsoft is going to do the same thing to the Cloud (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, etc) as they did with Windows ME, 8, 10 etc? Don't even get me started on the fiasco that is .NET framework.

    21. Re:Seen this before? by drinkypoo · · Score: 0

      Did you know they're bringing the bash she'll to Windows?

      Did you know they already brought a Unix shell, and a whole lot of other stuff, to windows? Then they abandoned that whole product (Services For Unix, which is actually Unixlike services for Windows, the precise opposite of the name.) Now they're going to do it again and someone is supposed to care?

      Do you realize how much code they're making open source?

      And I quote from the book of Ackbar, "It's a trap!" Their licenses are lame.

      This really isn't the same MS.

      [citation needed]

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    22. Re:Seen this before? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't know what *he's* implying, but I won't trust MS as long as they abusively sue, or threaten to sue, over patents that either they won't specify, that are obviously invalid, or both.

      So you are suggesting that Samsung hands over something in the order of $1 billion dollars a year to Microsoft for patents that Microsoft won't specify or are obviously invalid? You actually think that? I mean this company went up against Apple over patents.

      Just because defending against a patent lawsuit is too expensive to survive does not make the patent valid.

      Defending against a patent lawsuit is not too expensive to survive, we have seen plenty of patent lawsuit judgements either dismissed or go against the plaintiffs and the defendents have then thrived.

    23. Re:Seen this before? by exomondo · · Score: 1

      And I quote from the book of Ackbar, "It's a trap!" Their licenses are lame.

      Then all open source is "a trap", a quick look at their github page and their major projects are using OSI licenses:
      -.net core - MIT license
      -msbuild - MIT license
      -bot builder - MIT license
      -visual studio code - MIT license
      -objective C for windows - MIT license
      -f sharp - Apache license
      -c++ REST sdk -Apache licenes
      -typescript - Apache license
      -node js tools for vs - Apache license

      There's even projects released under the GPL: R host and Tocino

      Or the computational network toolkit here, what's 'lame' about that license?

    24. Re:Seen this before? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Keep watching, bub...this is the EMBRACE phase. Followed by the EXTEND phase....the phase where M$oft grapbs all the marbles, completely ignoring any licencing that might be in place. Lastly, of course, is the EXTINGUISH phase. M$oft has learned that in this battle, the phases need to be MUCH longer to achieve their ultimate goal.

    25. Re:Seen this before? by exomondo · · Score: 1

      Keep watching, bub...

      I've been watching for decades, I'm getting bored of seeing people like you parrot the same thing over and over with empty hypotheses and no result. With Java, HTML, Javascript, Linux, webmail, etc... still never "extinguished" in fact they just end up utilizing them and making money, which is exactly what a for-profit company wants to do. Not supporting them only hurts Microsoft and drives people to other platforms and indeed that we have seen.

    26. Re:Seen this before? by Barlo_Mung_42 · · Score: 1

      I think you're just bitter that this is finally the year of Linux on the desktop and it's MS that's making it happen.

    27. Re: Seen this before? by afidel · · Score: 1

      It's coming in the windows 10 anniversary update, they've added a Linux personality subsystem that will run unmodified Linux binaries on the Windows kernel through a mapping layer kind of like WINE. There announced it at BUILD last week and had someone from Ubuntu on stage at their freaking developer conference, how different from the Halloween letters MS can you get?

      --
      There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
    28. Re:Seen this before? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why not buy a Mac from Apple, instead?

      Hahahahahahaha.... no.

      "Why not sell your soul to Lucifer instead of the Antichrist?"

    29. Re:Seen this before? by Maritz · · Score: 1

      At first I thought your spittle-flecked rant was coming from a ultra-FOSS-fan viewpoint. But then I realise you're just an Apple nutter. Yes we get it, Microsoft = bad Apple = good. Cheers for that.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    30. Re:Seen this before? by ThatsNotPudding · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Ahh, those heady feelings one has during the Embrace phase...

    31. Re:Seen this before? by HiThere · · Score: 1

      Just because Samsung would survive doesn't meant that every company would. Perhaps MS has finally specified the patents, I haven't followed it carefully, but certainly when they originally threatened to sue over installing Linux they weren't willing to specify the patents. China eventually got them to specify some of them, and of those, many were obviously patents that should never have been issued, others could have been worked around if people had known what was being objected to. There may have been a few reasonable ones in the mix, but nobody has listed any that I've noticed. And since they declined to specify they may have been threatening with others.

      You don't need to specify to threaten to sue, only when you finally sue. And sometimes you can get that hidden by the court...at least for some period of time. Perhaps the judgment must be public, but I wouldn't even bet on that.

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    32. Re:Seen this before? by Burz · · Score: 1

      So that stack of patents they are using to collect from Android -- but won't acknowledge to the public -- Is that part of the "rethink"?

      How about all the open formats that Windows ignores? And my favorite... being told I need to reformat an external drive "in order to use it", when it already has EXT4 (and data!) on it. Apparently it would just kill MS to tell users the device contains a Linux format that can't be mounted. HOW FRIENDLY!

      In the web space, they are desperate for Azure to compete with FOSS, so they will support FOSS middleware; MS views the hypervisor as the new OS and getting hardware to support your proprietary "OS" as defacto-standard is the first step to locking-out alternatives.

      At the personal tech. level, however, not even the pretense of being FOSS-friendly is there.

      Its amazing how many MS shills there are on /. modding stuff like this down...

    33. Re:Seen this before? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Last time I tried .NET with Mono, it failed hard. I'm reluctant to try again so I'm waiting for a foss project to actually use .NET before I can say it's worth anything that is being sold.

    34. Re:Seen this before? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Last time I tried .NET with Mono, it failed hard.

      What do you mean? Mono is an open source implementation of .Net. You don't run .Net on Mono, your sentence does not make sense.

      I'm reluctant to try again so I'm waiting for a foss project to actually use .NET before I can say it's worth anything that is being sold.

      Im sure there are plenty of foss apps using .net. Is it that you need a learning resource to look at?

    35. Re:Seen this before? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's amazing how many people are blinded by their rage at a company so much that not only can they not be pragmatic themselves but can't understand that others can be pragmatic.

      No those things are not part of the "rethink", you're babbling about things completely irrelevant to the discussion topic in an attempt to gain favor from the anti-ms crowd that you thought would upmod you just because you injected something negative but irrelevant into the discussion. Now you're so butthurt that it backfired that you're actually proposing that you think MS feels your opinion is so important that they would pay people to silence you. Keep enjoying your fantasy of importance.

    36. Re:Seen this before? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      O RLY? When that company is forcing W10 upgrades on people and reporting on user activities?

      Shill or stooge -- take your pick. Microsoft is anything but "open source friendly".

  3. And Microsoft thinks this will help? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Wim will focus on deepening our engagement, contributions and innovation to the open-source community."

    Because he's done so well at that at Oracle

    1. Re:And Microsoft thinks this will help? by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 2, Funny

      I read "deepening our engagement" and the first thing that comes to mind is they found some lube...

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
    2. Re:And Microsoft thinks this will help? by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 1

      Perhaps a military engagement? 'Contribution' measured in artillery shells, 'innovation' measured in holes blasted in the landscape...

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
    3. Re:And Microsoft thinks this will help? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seriously though...Pretty much the first thing that Oracle did when it bought Sun, was kill off OpenSolaris. (It kinda sorta lives on as OpenIndiana, but that's just not the same)

      I'm convinced Oracle HATES open source just as much as Microsoft did, perhaps more. Maybe Microsoft's for real, maybe they are changing, maybe this guy is working there because he sees it. I don't know for sure, I just know that Oracle and Open Source do not go together, whether they have a Linux distro no one buys or not.

    4. Re:And Microsoft thinks this will help? by bungo · · Score: 1

      Because he's done so well at that at Oracle

      You may laugh, but it is true. Oracle were never going to turn itself into an Open Source company, and give away it's database for free.

      Back in 1997, Oracle didn't have any official open source policy. It was not possible to officially run Oracle on Linux. There was a SCO release, and it was possible to grab a couple of SCO libraries and get Oracle running. There was no official project inside Oracle to get the database running on Linux.

      Any open source work that was going on at the time was non-official, by individual employees, with no official support by Oracle management. Now, Oracle are paying people to work on the Linux kernel, along with a number of other Linux related open source add-ons.

      Wim was an important player in getting Oracle to have an open source policy, and getting an official Linux version of the database, even if they did rip-off Redhat.

      For a car analogy, Oracle have delivered an open source sub-compact, and if you were expecting them to deliver a fleet of 18 wheelers, then you're going to be sorely disappointed - but you can't say that they didn't deliver something, which is more than nothing.

      It's really difficult to turn around an organization like Oracle, and the amount of open source support, no matter how small, is still more than I would have expected back in 1996.

           

      --
      "The best part? I became an ordained minister while not wearing pants." -- CleverNickName
    5. Re:And Microsoft thinks this will help? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You may laugh, but it is true. Oracle were never going to turn itself into an Open Source company, and give away it's database for free.

      Of course not, this is the problem with open source and businesses. In fact Oracle followed the GPL when it got the code for RHEL, added its own kernel and redistributed it (also with the Red Hat kernel) and offered support at half the price Red Hat was charging, then Red Hat got all shitty at them for undercutting.

  4. Year of Linux on the Desktop (tm) by OffTheLip · · Score: 2

    Finally.

    1. Re:Year of Linux on the Desktop (tm) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It was wishful thinking to hope that MS would eventually migrate to a UNIX/Linux kernel like Apple did with OS X, especially with major revamps like Win 7 and 10. But I haven't given up the dream.

    2. Re:Year of Linux on the Desktop (tm) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Actually, this was ignorant thinking. The NT kernel itself is quite mature and holds it's own against Unix in terms of features, security, and performance. It's not the 1990s anymore. Apple screwed itself by holding onto MacOS, which was never well designed to begin with, for too long and by 1999 it was the only major OS without protected memory and fully pre-emptive multitasking. They had little choice but to dump their own kernel because they really didn't have the technical prowess to develop their own. They ended up choosing a cheaper way out.

    3. Re:Year of Linux on the Desktop (tm) by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 1

      What if the NT kernel itself just became POSIX compliant?

      https://i-msdn.sec.s-msft.com/...

    4. Re:Year of Linux on the Desktop (tm) by Celarent+Darii · · Score: 1

      Very ironic when we consider that systemd refuses to be POSIX compliant.

    5. Re:Year of Linux on the Desktop (tm) by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      And really why develop your own when a free one is just there for the taking. Jobs was brilliant. Not very nice, but brilliant.

    6. Re:Year of Linux on the Desktop (tm) by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 1

      Really? I thought the complaint about systemd is that it doesn't follow the unix philosophy of "do one thing and do it well".

    7. Re:Year of Linux on the Desktop (tm) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Get over it - you lost. Yes systemd was an annoyance to convert to - I got over it - now your endless whining posts are a bigger annoyance.

    8. Re:Year of Linux on the Desktop (tm) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Very ironic when we consider that systemd refuses to be POSIX compliant.

      Where are either of you seeing POSIX in this? That diagram says Windows Subsystem for Linux.

      "Linux" not POSIX.

    9. Re:Year of Linux on the Desktop (tm) by StormReaver · · Score: 1

      Funny you should mention that, because I've been converting individuals and businesses to Linux desktops for years.

    10. Re:Year of Linux on the Desktop (tm) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I particuarly like how he came up with the idea of putting rounded corners onto RECTANGULAR phones. We were all pretty much resigned to being poked in the legs all our lives with pointy, hard, square telephones. Good work Steve. Shame on SAMEsung for stealing the great ideas (artists) copy steal what?

    11. Re:Year of Linux on the Desktop (tm) by Celarent+Darii · · Score: 1

      No, actually systemd uses things that are exclusive to Linux. This is why systemd cannot be used on *BSD systems. This also forces the BSD people to actually write shims around systemd in order to port normally portable software such as GNOME which have a dependency on systemd.

      Systemd is wrong on so many levels. It is not POSIX compliant and makes normally portable software UNPORTABLE to other unix systems. It is a lot like what Microsoft did in the past - make their system necessary for any application. The whole purpose of POSIX was to provide a basic standard which applications could rely on for portability. Granted that POSIX didn't always succeed in this goal, but systemd has fundamentally destroyed years of work for no gain at all.

  5. One Raging Asshole Called Larry Ellison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's not really the point of this story, but that needed to be posted here somewhere.

  6. Ahhh... Nostalgia... by Rydell · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You know what struck me while reading this story submission? I decided to go read the comments from the previous slashdot stories linked in the article summary that dated back to 2004-2007. The number of quality comments back then that were devoid of SJW b.s. or other political nonsense completely unrelated to science and technology. Whipslash, how do we bring all those commenters back to the site? That's what we need right now.

    1. Re:Ahhh... Nostalgia... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The number of quality comments back then that were devoid of SJW b.s

      BTW it's just sjw now, no capitalization needed. New AP Style Guide.

    2. Re:Ahhh... Nostalgia... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You put all the SJW morons in a concentration camp along with all the Trump supporter dipshits. and then give them smallpox blankets.

    3. Re: Ahhh... Nostalgia... by cyber-vandal · · Score: 1

      This was before the dark times. Before Twitter. Are there any sites free of SJWs anymore?

    4. Re:Ahhh... Nostalgia... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The fact that you are banging on about "SJW"s should be a clue that you are at least half the problem. If we want the old slashdot back you are going to have to cut out your culture war politics as well.

    5. Re:Ahhh... Nostalgia... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are -- with this comment -- the one bringing up "SJW b.s. or other political nonsense".

    6. Re:Ahhh... Nostalgia... by hankwang · · Score: 1

      Politics and SJW'ing creep into discussions if the topic of the story invites it. Not the case for this topic, today or back in 2004-2007. In my perception, any topic vaguely related to national US politics would invoke hundreds of comments. Not sure about SJW, but then, I'm still not entirely sure exactly what kind of comments those bickering about it are referring to.

      But yeah, back then, there were more people knowledgeable about obscure technical topics to generate 100+ comments on stories that were not political or car-related.

      --
      Avantslash: low-bandwidth mobile slashdot.
    7. Re:Ahhh... Nostalgia... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What about posts whining about SJWs b.s. because someone disagreed with their short sighted position and hurt their feelings? :)

      What about all the nontechs who think that complaining about SJWs is what this site is about, and that it's for them because they once watched star trek or star wars or read a comic or played MTG once? What about the people who have less than 6 digits in their fucking ids and who haven't even been coming here in a decade because of dumbass whiners like you who are even worse than the SJWs you complain about 'cos you presume your point of view is the normal one?

      Stop whining, go do something productive with your life.

    8. Re: Ahhh... Nostalgia... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      'before twitter' was 'before the dark times'?
      Why are you all so goddamn stupid? and why do you think you have a viable platform to criticize others for being a worthless fucking plague?

      Fuck the SJWs but fuck you and your shitty preconceptions more.

    9. Re: Ahhh... Nostalgia... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why yes, bastions of anonymity and free speech like 4chan tend to be poison to SJWs. Them being generally toxic isn't relevant...

    10. Re:Ahhh... Nostalgia... by Maritz · · Score: 1

      As a rule of thumb it seems safe to ignore anyone who uses "SJW" unironically. Seriously. Take your gaming journalism and your ethics and shove it way up where none shall ever see its like again. ;) Stay scared of women, sporty.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    11. Re:Ahhh... Nostalgia... by Maritz · · Score: 1

      The general tone/tenor is becoming very like that of 4chan.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    12. Re:Ahhh... Nostalgia... by The-Ixian · · Score: 1

      Show me a person who is not interested in social justice and I will show you a privileged asshat who has a vested interest in maintaining the status quo.

      --
      My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
    13. Re:Ahhh... Nostalgia... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If I were in charge of trying to resurrect slashdot, I would do 3 things:

      1) Redefine "News for Nerds". A big realization set in when a friend of mine with a liberal arts degree talked about Slashdot the other day. What is someone with a liberal arts degree doing reading Slashdot? How does she even know about it??? She's not interested in computers, or physics, or math, or even gaming (video, table top or otherwise). She's likes literature and is interested in current events and issues like civil liberties. She is an avid follower of The Huffington Post. As much as I like my friend, I would try my hardest to make Slashdot a place that she would have no interest in visiting.

      Example of a good article: https://science.slashdot.org/story/15/08/28/1433202/ingenious-experiment-closes-loopholes-in-quantum-theory It links to the journal and arxiv. News for Nerds.

      Example of a bad article: https://science.slashdot.org/story/15/11/15/0626203/quantum-entanglement-survives-even-across-an-event-horizon It links to Forbes. News for normal people who have a passing interest in what is happening in the world of science.

      2) Revise the moderation system. The real downfall of Slashdot came when people discovered how easy it is to game the moderation. Because it had a lot of eyeballs, politically motivated groups came here with an agenda, whether it was astroturfing or intimidating people. You will notice that I post as AC now. I started doing that because I noticed that some people were following me and upvoting every single piece of crap I wrote simply because I happened to agree with their agenda. I was being used as a pawn in some stupid turf war.

      3) Stricter posting policies and paid moderators. On topic posts (unlike this one!!!) only, or they get deleted. Delete threads that become flame wars. Delete all the intimidation posts ("Why is always posting this?", etc). Don't try to make everyone happy. Don't try to be fair. Make a functioning comment system.

      I'm not sure if Slashdot is capable of making the transition. Their business model probably relies on the flamewars and clickbaity stories. It would be a big risk to chuck it all. However, I think without that kind of change we will likely just see a slow decline until it dies completely.

    14. Re:Ahhh... Nostalgia... by martinfb · · Score: 1

      I second this notion!

      --


      Self-importance and self-indulgence is the root of ALL evil.
  7. Little bread crumbs... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    SQL for Linux...Aquisition of Mono...Linux guy...

    Connection???

    MS Linux distro????????

    1. Re:Little bread crumbs... by wjcofkc · · Score: 1

      This may not be totally out of the question. When IBM exited the PC business and other stuff, a lot of people looked at that as the misstep of death. Now look. Cloud. Big Data. AI. They are doing pretty good without there former core business.MS develops a lot of software and technologies, I would not be surprised at all if Windows is a resource hog on the company. I have no idea how a total migration in Linux would look or work, but it would not catch me off guard.

      --
      Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
    2. Re: Little bread crumbs... by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      Sure. They hired an expert in a Linux distro very few people want to run. Maybe they're trying to save .NET and the server revenue isn't worth the effort anymore. Desktop + Apps + Web IDE might be enough in 2016. The days of a CAL for everything are replaced by subscriptions to everything and app stores. Fighting admins who won't accept public-facing Windows servers is an uphill battle.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    3. Re:Little bread crumbs... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Windows is not a "resource hog" it is still a very lucrative "cash cow". And this cash has given MS the freedom to invest and branch into other technologies and business models. MS knows there is an end date on their current desktop and even server technologies and are adapting. A lot of companies that invest in developing new technologies go out of business if their idea tanks. On the other hand MS can afford to lose money when their forays into other technologies fail. This is similar to what goes on in the big oil companies. The people running these companies are not stupid. They know profits from oil based energy market will decrease as time goes on. The largest investments in alternative energy research are the big oil companies. As alternative energy sources come into their own the people running the oil industry see no reason they cannot sit on top of the alternative energy market.

    4. Re:Little bread crumbs... by laffer1 · · Score: 1

      Seems reasonable. Microsoft used to have a Unix distro, Xenix.

      They ditched it when the got far enough along with NT.

      --
      MidnightBSD: The BSD for Everyone
    5. Re:Little bread crumbs... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I would not be surprised at all if Windows is a resource hog on the company

      How can windows be a resource hog if you must pay for its license whenever you buy a new computer? They get more income with this than the federal govt. through taxes.

  8. The weather is so much better in Seattle by jfdavis668 · · Score: 1

    He was getting tired of the California lifestyle.

  9. Wim Coekaerts - the software thief. by khz6955 · · Score: 1

    "Wim Coekaerts .. turned Oracle into a Linux distributor with the launch of its Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) clone, Oracle Linux."

    Don't you mean, stripped of Red Hat copyright notices and fraudulently distributed RHEL as its own. How appropriate he's now moving the Microsoft.

    1. Re:Wim Coekaerts - the software thief. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't you mean, stripped of Red Hat copyright notices and fraudulently distributed RHEL as its own.

      How is this any different than CentOS? RedHat requires that you remove any of their trademarks. Otherwise they've done nothing wrong.

      The only reason why Oracle Linux exists is that a lot of people run Oracle DBs on Linux and they'd rather have the OS support contract money going to Oracle and not RedHat.

    2. Re:Wim Coekaerts - the software thief. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No all the licenses are still there. They have a subscription so they get the free and open source code and are then allowed to freely modify and redistribute that code under the GPL, which they do. They make no secret that their distro is based on Red Hat. They even ship the Red Hat kernel, they also use the Red Hat Package Manager. I can see why Red Hat would be annoyed at this, Oracle are taking their offering, modifying it and giving it away for free all whilst offering much cheaper support contracts than Red Hat, but that is the way free software is supposed to work.

    3. Re:Wim Coekaerts - the software thief. by Alioth · · Score: 1

      No, they didn't fraudulently distribute RHEL as their own. The GPL explicitly allows and is designed to let them do what they are doing. The software they are redistributing as their distro is all appropriately licensed so they can do this.

      --
      Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
  10. MSG from the future CEO of Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The CEO of Microsoft appeared to me before from the future to bring the news to you infidels.

    In 2018, Microsoft shall release the first ever Linux by Microsoft, called Microsoft Linux 9.

    There will be various editions you'll be able to buy, here is a short list with a summary:

    Microsoft Linux 9 Home - Just $120 Today!

    You will be granted the privilege to boot into your computer and use Microsoft Updates on your computer. The linux terminal and any text editors will be disabled on the system and you'll be able to browse the internet.

    Microsoft Linux Explorer(LE) 12 will be the default unmodifiable browser. You'll be able to use your browser to visit Microsoft and Trusted Partners' websites.

    Microsoft Linux 9 Pro - For the low price of $200 it can be Yours

    On Pro, you'll be granted the linux terminal environment to modify some features of your system. You'll also be able to connect to Microsoft approved computers remotely. In addition, you'll be granted a world-wide non-exclusive right to open Microsoft Updates and delay updating your computers by 24 hours.

    Microsoft Linux 9 Server - $6000 - You'll be granted full control over your system and you'll be able to connect to unknown computers on the internet.

    However, Microsoft doesn't take any responsibilities for your connections. For each server you connect to, you'll have to buy just 1 pack of Computer Access Licences which will benefit Microsoft $300 a licence.

    For each client/person/device that accesses your Microsoft Linux 9 Server, you'll need to purchase additional Client Access Licences at the affordable price of $500 each.

    You'll be able to run KVM virtualization technology on your server, however for each virtual machine, you'll need to pay for a Virtual Machine Access Licence.

    You'll need to buy one Virtual Machine Access Licence per person in your organization for each Virtual machine ever created.

    Additional licences are not refundable and cannot be reused. link

    1. Re:MSG from the future CEO of Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Would be hilarious if not exaggerated to the point of 'meh'.

  11. April fools? by loufoque · · Score: 1

    Is it?

  12. We've been here before by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is this a de Icaza moment all over again?

  13. Oblig 5thE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Evil begets evil

  14. Yes, they're making $$$ from Android Linux by raymorris · · Score: 1

    Yes. Keep in mind that top executives typically don't know the people six or eight levels down the chain of command who actually do the work. Nor do they typically know much about the work that those front-line people do. At the top, specifics are lost, they manage DIVISIONS, not people or projects. It's their job to buy and sell entire companies, like buying Nokia or Motorola. So everything comes down to dollars (with a pinch corporate vision mixed in).

    For Gates and Balmer, Linux and open source threatened to take away billions of dollars of sales. Microsoft's dominance could only be conceivably threatened by Linux or Apple. Gates saw no good in FOSS, it was simply one of two threats to Microsoft's position.

    Now, Linux and open source have become a source of REVENUE for Microsoft . Rather than being purely a threat, the Android patent royalties are Microsoft's primary revenue in mobile. So yes, that is part of Microsoft seeing open source as an opportunity rather than a threat. Android is bringing Microsoft two billion dollars each year. Two billion dollars a year would certainly change my point of view!

  15. Microsofties think criticism is trolling by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    Which is the same mentality that leads Microsoft to spy on everyone all the time and tell them that it's for their own good. What I don't get is why anyone not getting paid would defend them, or alternately, why they would think it was worth paying for Slashdot moderation.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  16. OEL will finally become a real distro? by ebvwfbw · · Score: 1

    All OEL is - is a RHEL rip off. They didn't even bother to remove /etc/redhat-release file, nor the other stuff they're required to. Added a few things, screwed up a lot of things and call it OEL.
    Maybe now that he's gone they can make it into a real distro. Set things up so if you have an exadata system you don't need a team of people to upgrade it. They are ALWAYS behind. Even with premium support.

  17. dickhead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Who cares? Some dickhead makes a copy of RH and now he works for another dickhead company