RE: tlug: Re: MS watching Linux and Borg revealations

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <turnbull@example.com>]

>>>>> "Jim" == Jim Schweizer <schweiz@example.com> writes:

    Jim> On 03-Sep-98 tjhaslam wrote:
    >> I`ll put a \5000 bet on this: in 18 months time, starting say
    >> now, MS announces (and possibly even introduces) its *own
    >> version* of Linux

This is theoretically possible, but I don't think MS will do it.  I
could imagine them donating server space to a Linux distribution and
calling it "MS Linux", but for it to matter, for it to "work", it
would have to sport the look and feel of Windoze, and a lot of the
functionality.  It would still have all the functionality of Linux,
though, and that's "pissing in the soup":  Why buy Microsoft Windose
NT Server when you can have Microsoft Linux Server, an industrial-
strength, industry-standard, Internet server that works and can be
maintained---and has the Microsoft Seal of Quality?

    Jim> That is perhaps the most frightening thing I've read all week
    Jim> - but knowing M$, someone in Redmond is probably plotting
    Jim> it...

Think about the implications.  MS programmers don't know how to write
a portable program, one that doesn't force the OS to adapt.  That
means that they'd have to publish and put into the public domain the
internal protocols of Windose.  They're not going to waste their time
complying with standards that will force them to publish their own
code....

    Jim> BUT, I hope they do - that would mean they'd have to port all
    Jim> their desktop apps to Linux, but, wait a minute, would M$
    Jim> Linux Word build on Slackware...

Probably, but you'd have to wait for them to do it.

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