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Wintel "Thin" Servers to Compete with Linux
GenePrescott
sent us a news.com story that talks about Microsoft and Intel
working together on a
thin server thrust.
They're going to try to use thin appliance type servers
to compete with the Threat that Linux poses to them. Interesting
article. Interesting tactic. Not sure if it'll work.
MS just doesn't get it. They think Linux is being sucessful because it is stripped-down and featureless. They couldn't be any further from the truth. It is sucessful because it is exactly as featureful as you *want* it to be, and no more. Yes, it can be a stripped down file/print/network-bridge machine, but it can be easily expanded later when need be.
They just don't get it.
Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.
Linux is hardly processor-agnostic. It strives toward that goal, and does fairly well, but just take a look at the verious programs out there. I'll bet you that for every ten you pick at random from the list (not counting the kernel and tools required for an absolute bare-bones distribution), all ten will compile out of the box on an Intel-based system, but at least one of those ten will compile out of the box only on an intel-based system, and it's more likely to be two or three.
Linux is not a cross-platform operating system. It is an operating system for Intel-based PCs, which happens to run on some other platforms as well. It strives to be cross-platform; someday it might even achieve it. But it's not there yet.
Never spent an hour hunting through every Pep Boys/AutoZone/Wal-Mart in town looking for a set of wipers, eh? Auto manufacturers are just about the worst example of "standards" you could come up with. Aside from the fluids you put in them, there's about 0% "standard parts" in the average automobile... ;-)
The wipers were an attempt at irony.. :-D
There may not be a "standard" wiper, but the general design of them is not patented by Intel, unlike say SLOT ONE (or Two...).
Socket7 was turning the CPU into a commoddity, so Intel's response was not to turn up the technology but to create a new socket and deny access to it, then make the techies take a back seat to Marketing. What a joke.
At least Intel pay well, so they can steal employees from Motorola. Motorola is too busy being anal to their golden employee, and allowing a gestapo-like IT department to "force standardize" on INTEL computers, at the expense of working Motorola-based Apple (or even Windows NT/PowerPC).
THAT must be demoralizing to employees who care about their company. They must have the same pointy-haired bosses middle-management "fat" found in places like IBM and Digital oops I mean Compaq.
It IS a goal for Linux to be platform independant, and it does a fine job at it. You can run Linux on LOTS of old computers so it's not necessary to buy a new computer as often. For example, all the Windows users will be buying new PC's within a year of Windows2000 for the same reasons people bought new machines when going from Win3.1 to Win95: your old software MAY work just fine but if it's not supported you WILL cough up money for a new system.
HOW MANY users of PhotoShop 3.0 still run on Windows 3.1? By contrast, how capable is the same machine running Linux. EVEN IF Linux were not faster than Windows, the very fact that you can OBTAIN a software upgrade for the computer may be enough to stick with it; some people are "cheap". How many users of 68040 MacOS 7.5 through 8.1 are still out there? LOTS. The systems are slow by today's standards, but you're not kicked down a flight of stairs like Microsoft users are.
All things being the same: price, performance and software availability, would you rule out non-Intel CPU's for a dedicated Linux-only box? You would be foolish to do so. Intel has every reason to fear Linux... after the Microsoft takedown THEY are next!
I'd *love* to see that Russian "Merced killer" become a reality, with a Linux port. CPU's are too expensive. The weakness of any product is allowing the customer to evaluate the competition; this is what software upgrades are all about. Intel's strategy is going to be to encourage BINARY file distribution, discourage commercial software from distributing the source (it's rare but it COULD catch on...), and attempt to introduce Intel-specific bits into libraries and kernels.
Intel is not a standard. REAL Commodities like SVGA monitors, the size of a soda can, analog clocks, and even winshield wipers ARE standards. CPU manufacturers sell magical sealed black boxes that can't be peered into and are just as capable of screwing you over as the Microsoft monopoly.
It's my understanding that Microsoft still sells a few copies of OS/2 1.x (at the original not-cheap price of $500) for embedded applications. Why not use IBM OS/2? I don't know.
NT-Embedded is designed to be a replacement for this product.
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Business. Numbers. Money. People. Computer World.
I doubt it. Microsoft has been working on Embedded NT for some time now.
But it's good to be paranoid, because everyone's out to get you.
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Business. Numbers. Money. People. Computer World.
Actually, you can go open source and charge for your products. Niche markets where you are going to have five clients are a bit tricky, you probably can't go free redistribution in those markets.
Games, on the other hand, are in a wonderful position to go open source. In all but a few cases, the code that runs the game isn't worth all that much, it's the story, artwork, and music that makes the game. Without the artwork, story, and music, the game is next to worthless. Thus you can give away your game, and sell the artwork, msuic, story, etc. like any other copyrighted material such as books, paintings, etc.
They laughed at Einstein. They laughed at the Wright Brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown. -- C. Sagan
The article states that Microsoft can't compete with linux in terms of price, but they believe that the ease in which you can port apps to these "thin servers" is what will give them an edge. I thought the main selling point of these servers is that they are thin and only serve one function. Why would you want to port an app to it?
It's always nice to see Microsoft making bad business decisions. We'll see a lot more of them as they try and combat Linux.
What can Microsoft do to stop the Free Software juggernaut? Their loss is inevitable; all they can do is slow it down. The economics of proprietary software are flawed. No other market sells a good that is as ridiculously over priced compared to it's creation costs as software. It's this flaw that made Gates the richest man in the history of the world, and it's the same flaw that will destroy almost all of proprietary software. If free software didn't come along to destroy the industry, piracy would have.
I think it's kind of funny watching the industry topple. It's not as apparent with Microsoft (because we don't have the end user apps to topple them yet), but just look at proprietary unix vendors. Most of them are dead and the rest will be shortly. The only ones that are really making money are the ones that run on the Big Iron that linux can't do, yet.
Anyway, to tie all this together and keep it on topic; The problem is how does Microsoft compete with Linux in the server market? The answer is that it doesn't. We know that, but they don't, or at least they are too arrogant to admit it. So instead they come up with a dumb answer to the "Competing with Linux" problem: "Thin" servers running WinCE. Fortunately this is flawed too. They propose a $1500-$2000 solution to a problem that Linux already solves for about $150 worth of hardware.
--- A Jesus Fish eating a Darwin Fish only proves Darwin's point.