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

[Jonathan Byrne - 3Web <jq@example.com>]

On Fri, 4 Sep 1998, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:


>>>>>> "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

<snip>

I have to agree with this.  While it is certainly possible for MS to build a
Linux distribution, it is highly unlikely, for exactly the reason you mention:
the stability and flexibility of Linux, combined with Microsoft's marketing
muscle and the GUI already familiar to the hundreds of millions of Windows
users would be stomping right on the toes of NT.  Give it the full
multimedia strengths of Windows and access to the huge development funds  that
MS has, and it would be a bullet aimed straight at the heart of NT.  If MS
introduce a Linux like that in 2000, NT would be history by 2005 at the
latest, but probably a lot sooner.  That, in turn, would destroy their current
lineup, since Windows 98 is the last Windows based on the old DOS/Windows 
line, MS having stated that the next consumer/home user Windows will be built
on an NT kernel.  They'll never do 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

This one I'm not so sure about, though.  Can you elaborate on this, and give
some examples?   Certainly, all of Microsoft's flagship software runs on
multiple platforms (except IIS, which runs only under NT).   But if we assume
that MS programs are in fact non-portable as charged, isn't this more a case
of "won't" than of "can't?"  Certainly, MS could make things as portable as
they felt like, but they believe (mostly correctly) that they are large and 
powerful enough that they can ignore precedent, create their own standards,
and most of the world will go along.  At least for right now, they are the
400 pound gorilla that can make a standard pretty much wherever it wants to.


Jonathan Byrne
Media and Content Section
3Web - Your Internet Solution! <URL:http://www.threeweb.ad.jp/index.en.html>
3Web Channel <URL: http://www.3web.co.jp/>

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