Despite his fondness for Windows, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says the company will make it easier for businesses to manage a wide variety of machines–including those running Linux.
Microsoft’s Ballmer grins and bears Linux–a little
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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It’s about time that M$ started to coorporate a little bit.
A Microsoft representative demonstrated Virtual Server running instances of Red Hat Enterprise Linux as Ballmer delivered a keynote speech at a management conference on Wednesday.
“Much as that hurts my eyes, I know that’s an important capability for our Virtual Server customers,” Ballmer said,
hehe
Excellent strategy for Microsoft. Eventually, when you can run any Linux app in Windows, who needs Linux?
”
Excellent strategy for Microsoft. Eventually, when you can run any Linux app in Windows, who needs Linux?
”
Ummm, most Linux server apps have a Windows version and yet many companies are still choosing Linux, so what is your point?
Actually, its the other way around. Why do you think novell hired someone to port Evolution to Windows?
Why would anyone want to run the more expensive Windows when they can run all their apps on linux?
“Ummm, most Linux server apps have a Windows version and yet many companies are still choosing Linux, so what is your point?”
His point was that once Microsoft makes it so you don’t need Linux to run these apps, they’ll return to Windows.
why? is there any reason to return to windows?
I think this is that start of something big on Microsoft’s end. Despite what everyone thinks of them they are subject to market forces just like every other company. Their customers want to work with more than just Windows. Microsoft realizes this. Before anyone flames me for being an MS fanboy know that I’ve ran nothing but Debian for the past 3 or 4 years. I just see this as a good thing, there are obviously places where linunx excels and there are places where you really can’t touch Windows. For example, there is still no way to do rapid App Development on linux (or at least a good one) and there’s still no way to get Windows on all the zany architectures that exist all over the place..
Good lord.
I went ‘Where do you want to patch today?’ – free in October of 2003. I see absolutely no reason to return for any reason. This includes my servers and workstations.
Ballmeister’s thinking is actually quite humorous.
…..”by this sign, you shall conquer!”
The Romans are coming!
any different then loading Vmware on Linux and then running MS Windows ontop?
Too early to say who’s going to win the virtualization game, plus lets wait and see what the Xen boys come up with.
Milione
Not sure about you folks but, I take this article with a grain of salt. Here’s why:
“We’ve worked closely with Sun–yes, Sun, the people we never worked closely with before,” he said, adding that Microsoft and Sun Microsystems would soon give an update on the progress made by the two companies since their detente was announced a year ago.
It is a matter of time before these two companies are at it again and this time around, Sun Microsystems is the going to be the companie that is going to get screwed over royally this time around.
I seriously doubt Microsoft’s intentions as “good will” and trying to make thing work. It is too good to be true.
Cycloneous
if ($user == “idiot”) {
Windows = “viruses, trojans, spyware, etc.”;
} else {
Windows = “safe”;
}
No, I don’t. I meant that if the user is an idiot, their computer will be infested with all the crap out there. I don’t run anti-spyware shit, I don’t run anti-virus, and I sure as hell don’t worry about such things.
Why? Because I don’t download britneyspearsnude.jpg.gif.exe off Kazaa, then wonder what all those new programs are doing in my Programs menu. I’ve never been infected with any form of spyware, and the only virus I ever had (ironically enough) was something my brother contracted from his usual Kazaa downloads, and then infected me with over a public folder share I have.
All you need is a NAT router and some brains.
Two words Embedded needs. EOF
idiot? A little harsh, don’t ya think?
I know lots of Windows users, that are NOT computer geeks and don’t know what’s safe or not. That’s not how they are wired.
My mom for one…..
Don’t blame the users and get out in the world a little.
idiot? A little harsh, don’t ya think?
Perhaps. Ignorant would be a better adjective.
Don’t blame the users and get out in the world a little.
Who should we blame, then? Its their own damned fault.
…that Microsoft leaves vulnerable ports open by default and allows IE and OE to actually execute programs without user prompting. Unless you define “idiot” as “anyone who plugs-in their Windows PC and connects it to the internet”, you really can’t blame the user. According to the SANS Institute, it only takes 20 minutes for a Windows PC to become infected:
http://news.com.com/Study:+Unpatched+PCs+compromised+in+20+minutes/…
It’s really hard to comprehend these Windows apologists who *still* defend Windows even now that the situation has become so absurdly severe.
while [ $os==”windows” ]; do users=”idiots” ;done
funny how almost every Windows article gets a windows vs linux flamewar, just an observation
I used to use Linux, then I started getting pissed off. (…) Upgrade one lib, *bam*, some app over here breaks. Update your kernel? *BAM* Unexplained filesystem corruption because the kernel just happened to break some ATA/FS driver.
If stability is your main concern then you quite simply should not go around replacing system libraries and tinkering with the kernel
I won’t even go into application/game support.
There are lots of high quality applications on Linux, many with the added benefit of being free and open-source. As far as games go, all of the really good ones are available for Linux: gnuchess, gnugo, xsokoban, etc
I won’t bother going into all of the details of everything that I know/have noticed, but Linux is a piece of poo.
No it’s not. Instead your beloved games are poo
Users (mom,dad,grandpaw,grandmaw) purchase their pc in good faith from store x, just as they would a tv. Since they are NOT geeks, they believe it should work without problem as their tv.
Same can be said if they use Linux and use apt-get upgrade. If the box pukes, the user isn’t at fault.
Step out of your geek-life for a while and see the rest of the world.
But Windows doesn’t require the user to know how the computer works. Just to not download any files unless they do
….
Ok, a bit exaggerated.
“Ok, a bit exaggerated.”
Not by much.
if ($user == “idiot”) {
Windows = “viruses, trojans, spyware, etc.”;
} else {
Windows = “safe”;
}
So true. I run XP with a router/firewall and firefox, no software firewall, no antivirus, and it’s clean as a whistle! Has been for a year+. XP steadily degrades over time, but in terms of security anyone with long term “internet experience” and common sense can run XP fine for a long time.
It’s not harsh at all, a common defintion of “idiot” is “common person” or “person with no distinguishing skill” in the topic at hand. So, someone who does not understand computers is a typical computer user, or a computer commoner: They are therefore, an idiot in this arena.
It sounds harsh because the word has negative connotations; I think largely imposed by our democracy obsessed society but likely many other reasons as well.
It seems though that this definition has completely died off now, and my Webster’s 1913 is not handy, so it looks like now it is a synonym for retard. Maybe it is a little strong, nevermind!
“when you can run any Linux app in Windows, who needs Linux?”
It is the other way around, it has already been said:
when you can run any Windows app in Linux, who needs an expensive, unstable, highly insecure OS as Windows?
I disagree, you can find zealots everywhere for each main O/S platform. If such offends you Wolf, raver31 you know what to do, ignore it all, walk away from the people you call zealots.
You cannot compare a Linux “Zealot” with Taliban – that just shows who is stupid and ill-educated.
You are so lame. Sorry to be personal, but your comments reflect the same old linux zealots (or shall i call them as…les) attitude which is putting me completely off of Linux day by day.
The guy I replied to was ranting about how linux was poo because it broke down on him after he screwed around with his system, and at the same time claimed only the most idiotic users were at risk of spoiling their windows installation. Guess who’s the zealot here
People like you will really make sure that with your suck ass attitude you scare away most people from Linux. And with your hear no evil, see no evil (in Linux), you are essentially inhibiting advances in Linux.
I don’t deny there is room for improvement with Linux, but it certainly is not poo in any way. If you think this way of thinking is “suck ass attitude” then you are closer to a Taliban than I’ll ever be
Ahh how i wish Linux community was more tolerant and nicer. But with people like you Linux community has become Taliban (Al Qaida) of Software.
lol, you must be american
3. A human being destitute of the ordinary intellectual
powers, whether congenital, developmental, or accidental;
commonly, a person without understanding from birth; a
natural fool. In a former classification of mentally
retarded people, idiot designated a person whose adult
level of intelligence was equivalent to that of a
three-year old or younger; this corresponded with an I.Q.
level of approximately 25 or less.
1913 Webster +PJC
Treating a Windows system as a Unix or a Linux system as Windows is a sure way to destroy them booth.
RTFM and your system should be ok.
I’ve just figured out how to become even richer than Bill Gates. Start selling some of whatever the previous Anonymous poster is smoking. That has got to be some good stuff!
“The Enterprise” must refer to Star Trek: Enterprise, because at every real enterprise (ie not your basement) I’ve visited lately, they’re still deploying Windows (and Solaris, for that matter), and it is still the dominant market leader. Linux may be coming along, but the reports of the deaths of the other OSes have been greatly exaggerated.
XP + SP2, default install, no router/firewall. Let’s see it get infected. Oh, wait … you were talking about an SP1-level system, weren’t you?
Now let’s put an RH/FC1,2,3 system online, under the same circumstances. *BAM* rooted. I installed FC3 in VMware the other day, and when I got that friendly little reminder to update my software, I was fucking *shocked* when it wanted to upgrade 150 packages. And I had done a fairly minimalistic install, too …
Hell, that’s like downloading the CD all over again.
I remember IBM saying “Who need Windows? We can run win32 applications inside OS/2 better then them!” (and that was true…).
One would have expected a VM like theirs to run ANY x86-compatible OS out of the box. That MS’s did not either calls into question the quality of the product or their business practices (if Linux was explicitly excluded).
Why would someone decry RH FC3 for having so many package updates? Heck, it’s not a release product but a VERY actively developed beta with many contributors. Packages in RH FC3 are constantly being tweaked. Why not try a production distribution? How would it be any different if MS included as many pacakages with XP or was a vigilant in updating them? I wouldn’t.
Why would you run Linux UNDER Windows anyway? The only reason can be to evaluate it. Hardware isn’t so expensive you can’t find a box to put Linux on (cheaper than using MS’ VM). Running it under Windows would give worse performance, require a much beefier Windows system, and introduce several new modes of failure into running it (VM configuration, VM stability, and Windows stability among them).
FWIW, Microsoft’s stock went up 3% on the news (much needed since they’d lost about 20% of their value over the last 6 months). However, when Microsoft needs to mention Linux support to boost their stock price, that does not bode well for their future (unless there’s a significant change in their direction).
XP + SP2, default install, no router/firewall. Let’s see it get infected. Oh, wait … you were talking about an SP1-level system, weren’t you?
You do realize that most XP systems out there are still at SP1 level, right? In fact, only 24% of XP systems have had SP2 installed. So this is still very much a current issue.
For more info:
http://www.tomshardware.com/column/20050414/index.html
Now let’s put an RH/FC1,2,3 system online, under the same circumstances. *BAM* rooted.
Uh, no. Even the weakest versions of RedHat never got rooted in less than 15 minutes, like XP SP1 installs do. I think 2 or 3 days was the average for RedHat 2 years ago; recent versions (such as RC3) will last up to three months. Other Linux distros usually fared better as well (Debian comes to mind), so your example is not only dated but suspiciously selective as well. And that’s not even mentioning the BSDs and Mac OS…
I installed FC3 in VMware the other day, and when I got that friendly little reminder to update my software, I was fucking *shocked* when it wanted to upgrade 150 packages. And I had done a fairly minimalistic install, too …
Hell, that’s like downloading the CD all over again.
I doubt it, since there are *thousands* of packages on the CD. 150 packages isn’t necessarily a lot, considering that lots of packages are fairly small (less than 200k). Downloading a 50MB upgrade or 50 1MB packages is pretty much the same thing…
BTW, there’s no need to use profanity to get your point across. It may get your post modded down, in fact.
as seen through the eyes of an OS/2 fan.
Thanks for reminding me, reader.
I’ve kinda made up a proverb, that whenever someone says X runs Y’s software products as well as or better than Y itself, that’s a signal for the market that X is not being marketed on its own value.
It’s slightly different with the Unix-branded OSes, though, because of the *BSD factor – there’s a bit of BSD in every Unix variant, so it means very little if Linux can run most *BSD software. On the other hand, Linux is the up-and-coming Unix variant, so if a major Unix variant is touted as being able to run Linux software straight-out-of-the-box, it means that said major Unix variant is going to be subsumed under the Linux banner.
So I’m not particularly worried that Microsoft is going to be joining the 1992-96 IBM in touting its product as being able to run its competitor’s software better than said competitor itself. After all, IBM now sells Linux services, and it’s not doing badly out of that at all.