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Microsoft fears Linux


ianw1974
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Microsoft has long pooh-poohed Linux as a desktop competitor. But a recent filing with the Security and Exchange Commission has the company admitting for the first time that Linux represents a significant threat to Windows.

 

TechFlash reports that in Microsoft's recent annual filing with the SEC, it listed for the first time Ubuntu's maker Canonical, and Linux distributor Red Hat as competitors to its Client division, which makes Windows. Previously, TechFlash says, Red Hat was listed but only as a competitor to its Business and Server & Tools divisions.

 

In its annual filing, Microsoft warns that Linux is a threat to Windows, particularly in emerging markets and for netbooks. It also warns that Apple is a threat, but it's said that before. The big news is the addition of Linux.

 

Read more here: blogs.computerworld.com

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"Microsoft fears Linux" and so they should. The fact is GNU/Linux has come a very long way in the ease of use department. I hope they also continue to make huge mistakes like 'Vista' that debacle motivated a lot of users to seek out alternatives to Winblows. And there's nothing like the truth being set free to piss people off...

Unless someone on the inside of M$ can document a M$ built in back door to the OS, or the next XP security patch shuts XP completely off, or it can be proven that service packs are M$ way of making the OS slower and slower to force users to upgrade; Source: ComputerWorld Blogs.
Guard this one closely M1cr0$0ft, secrets always somehow get revealed....

 

:tux:P-P-P-Penguin Power :tux:

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Or they just wanna get through their "Hey, we're not a monopoly!" message.

 

Quite possibly, I hadn't considered that. Although, regulators (at least the ones that bother) wouldn't put much weight on the statements in the SEC filing given the strength of the other facts.

 

I think that the very mention of Linux should strike fear in the very heart of Microsoft. Linux is a formidable force to be reckoned with. C'mon Linux!!!

 

"Microsoft fears Linux" and so they should. The fact is GNU/Linux has come a very long way in the ease of use department. I hope they also continue to make huge mistakes like 'Vista' that debacle motivated a lot of users to seek out alternatives to Winblows. And there's nothing like the truth being set free to piss people off... Guard this one closely M1cr0$0ft, secrets always somehow get revealed....

 

:tux:P-P-P-Penguin Power :tux:

 

Would love to agree, but I don't. As much as I support Linux, I feel that we have to be pragmatic about this. Unless hardware support from key manufacturers and software support from key commercial software developers improves vastly beyond the token gestures we currently see, the threat will always be minimal.

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Would love to agree, but I don't. As much as I support Linux, I feel that we have to be pragmatic about this. Unless hardware support from key manufacturers and software support from key commercial software developers improves vastly beyond the token gestures we currently see, the threat will always be minimal.

True, but they won't support us if we don't have the userbase. Seriously, it's mostly games that keeps winblows popular for the average home user. Once they grow out of that phase and want to do more than shoot at pixels, they soon get fed up with having to defend against the myriad of viruses, spyware etc in order to get some work done. There was a time when GNU/Linux was only mentioned by those who used it.
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It's not just only games.

Many professionals can't use Linux right now- musicians, designers, publishers.

Linux has an exhellent kernel for demanding audio jobs, but virtually no support at all for common editing plugins (VST, VSTI, RTAS). All of them are well supported in OSX, so I guess importing them to Linux should not be a great deal, but since the userbase is less than minimal, most, if not all, vendors of such plugins are simply not interested spending money to port their plugins to a potentially unapetizing market. VST was recently planted natively to many Linux audio editors/sequencers, but the way they work leaves A LOT to be desired. No VSTI or RTAS yet, and dunno when they will be available.

For designers, all existing editors are either poor, or amateurish, compared to (say) Dreamweaver or Quark XPress. Heck, even Gimp may be a great app, but when it comes to color management, it simply sucks- bigtime.

For publishers, the almost non-existing support for CMYK color palettes and printing in Linux, makes it a no-no.

Edited by scarecrow
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