“Microsoft is growing more serious in its efforts to respond to
Linux and has assembled a handful of people to evaluate Linux the
same way the company evaluates other competitors.
“The effort is part of the company’s standard way of assessing
competitive threats and using that information to figure out how to
improve the company’s own products, Microsoft spokespeople said
today.
“The group includes fewer than 10 people, the Wall Street
Journal reported today, but Microsoft spokespeople were unable to
confirm the number or say how long the Linux evaluation effort has
been under way.
“Linux is changing the rules, said Brian Behlendorf, a developer
of the Apache Web server software popular on Linux.”
“Behlendorf said the biggest change in the playing field isn’t
so much Linux, but the arrival of the open-source programming
model…”