Microsoft’s Linux and Open Source Software Lab serves as both a place to examine the threat posed to Microsoft products by open-source offerings and a venue for testing software from Microsoft and others that’s designed to span that divide. The lab is home to hundreds of servers and desktops that run dozens of different types of Linux and Unix. Here are photos of the lab.
I bet my guts they are working hard to come up with a virus that finally affects Linux boxes.
I would be supprised…. i don’t think microsoft would do this internally even if they were to do it.
they would hire people from the outside to do it.
… Linux code would help Vista be more stable, and we’d never know.
those pictures are amusing..
wonder if they learned how to add themselves a user account yet..
My Linux lab looks more impressive than that.
Those little penguins are saying: See no FUD, Hear no FUD, speak no FUD.
What are Microsoft’s motives wrt to this Linux lab? What do they really hope to achieve?
What are Microsoft’s motives wrt to this Linux lab? What do they really hope to achieve?
Well, the answer to that is simple: “Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer.” (Sun Tzu).
The point is, Microsoft deams Linux as a threat; and instead of discarding your enemy, it is better to get to know it, to understand why customers (*not* zealots) prefer it over Windows.
The first step to beating your enemy, is getting to know your enemy. Do you think Red Hat’s HQ is a Windows-less environment? Don’t count on it.
What are the avatars of the enemy doing in a m$ lab? Do they really like the penguin :p. But I’ve read an article about the guy who’s in charge of that lab, if you hear what he says, he sounds a bit more linux-minded than his upper-chiefs.
They even submited bug reports on apache and gaim a while ago I think…
http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=64981
http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=65355
ohhhhh, that looks like a massive lab, 2 desktop pc’s!
ohhhhh, that looks like a massive lab, 2 desktop pc’s!
RTFA or more accurately LATFP. Look at Picture 2 A large number of rack mounted servers running a variety of Linux distros.
Its like Normandy on Microsoft land!
The initial assault was extremely successful with minimal casualties. LOL!
On a serious note, this shows MS is taking Linux and other solutions quite seriously. Linux seems to be the biggest threat.
I bet they have the BSD’s in the mix too even if they are not explicitly mentioned… If not, I’ll be very disappointed.
First: Mac OS X (Darwin) is a BSD.
Second: SFU are mostly based on OpenBSD
Third: Rotor has been released for FreeBSD.
I’m sure there are a few “regular” BSD installations.
Oh crap now I need to find another IM client… j/k
We already know about Microsoft’s Linux lab, enough PR you marketing droids.
its not MS secret Linux lab, its my place. How on earth did these guys take those photos …….
I am more interested in M$’s OSX lab, but that will be topsecret, since it serves another purpose!
i’m more interested in M$’s Commodore64 lab… but that is topsecret to lol
Otherwise known as “the world”.
Can we get some marketing slime about that, too?
I wondered for a moment whether Microsoft had an Apple lab, but then I realized that they have the Mac BU.
Laboratories indeed. Heed thus:
“Dr. Moreau: What is the law?
Sayer of the Law: Not to eat meat, that is the law. Are we not men?
Beasts (in unison): Are we not men?
Dr. Moreau: What is the law?
Sayer of the Law: Not to go on all fours, that is the law. Are we not men?
Beasts (in unison): Are we not men?
Dr. Moreau: What is the law?
Sayer of the Law: Not to spill blood, that is the law. Are we not men?
Beasts (in unison): Are we not men?”
Look at M$’ history, do you think the doctor ever changes?
Above quotes originate at: http://imdb.com/title/tt0024188/quotes
for:”Island of Lost Souls (1933)”
Of course the secret M$ trolls probably rated that -2 so as the general public couldn’t have a chance to glimpse the truth via the crystal electrified ball as any prophet would.
“Laboratories indeed. Heed thus:
“Dr. Moreau: What is the law?
Sayer of the Law: Not to eat meat, that is the law. Are we not men?
Beasts (in unison): Are we not men?
Dr. Moreau: What is the law?
Sayer of the Law: Not to go on all fours, that is the law. Are we not men?
Beasts (in unison): Are we not men?
Dr. Moreau: What is the law?
Sayer of the Law: Not to spill blood, that is the law. Are we not men?
Beasts (in unison): Are we not men?”
Look at M$’ history, do you think the doctor ever changes?
Above quotes originate at: http://imdb.com/title/tt0024188/quotes
for:”Island of Lost Souls (1933)””
Isn’t this old news? I’m pretty sure that I already seem this article before, like, last week, perhaps on Newsforge or somewhere else.
DeadFish Man
They only have a couple of servers, to desktops and one notebook and nobody to work? 😉
and then repaint them as their own. If they can inject copyrighted code in patches to Linux then it will also serve as a tool to destory Linux.
Mod parent up ++++++ Excellent post
a virus that finally affects Linux boxes.
There already is one. It’s called Redhat Package Manager.
RE: “The point is, Microsoft deams Linux as a threat; and instead of discarding your enemy, it is better to get to know it, to understand why customers (*not* zealots) prefer it over Windows.”
i prefer Linux because it is both free as in beer and in opensource, and it works plenty good for me, KDE & XFCE both have multiple virtual desktops which is better than a single desktop when managing multiple applications, Linux does not have the draconian EULAs and product activation tieing the OS to the MS-borg, Linux offers a choice of distributions, microsoft wont be able to beat this offer, so MS can discect thier copies of Linux all they want and there wont be anything they can use against it, about the only thing they can do is steal ideas…
> UTC in reply to “re: lab” ohhhhh, that looks like a massive lab, 2 desktop pc’s!
Those aren’t “desktop pc’s” al all. Their Avocent / Cybex KVM switch frontent boxen.
In non-MCSE administrated Unix labs one ‘d be more likely to find SSH/X-Window for in-band and Conserver managed serial-consoles for out-of-band stuff though (the latter either daisy-chained or via a some reverse-terminal servers.)
Here’s the homepage of that secret lab:
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/
Well Microsoft already coded for Unix with their products for MacOSX, and with Apple switch to X86 (MS Favorite Platform) I see no reason why they should not figure out a way to make money out of Linux geeks…
The yet untold part of this story; The best Linux distro on the planet is likely the one MS has created behind closed doors. Needless to say they have the resources to do so in grand fashion.
Look at the first picture. It looks like he’s running Luminocity!
Maybe Micro$oft in the future will do M$ Linux, a linux distribution by microsoft…
Wait…they done it now!: <a href=”http://www.mslinux.org“>mslinux