ZDNet: From FUD to trash talk - The gloves are off as Redmond starts revving its hype machine to attack Linux

"My, how time flies. Things sure have come a long way since I started writing on open source issues for ZDNet a hundred columns ago...."

"In the two years since, the complaints about Linux have gone from:

• "It's just a toy" to
• "So it's not a toy, but it can't run reliably" to
• "So it's reliable, but there are no apps" to
• "So it's got apps, but nobody's using it in a corporate setting" to
• "So people are using in a corporate setting, but Oracle's not supporting it" to
• "So Oracle supports it, but there's no commercial help-desk support" to
• "So there's commercial support, but where are the hardware vendors" to
• "So IBM's putting a billion bucks into Linux, but there's no enterprise support" to
• "So there's now enterprise support, let me think of something else..."

"One by one the objections have fallen. Bit by bit (pardon the pun) the people who code, document, and market Linux have dealt with the obstacles, technical or otherwise...."

Complete Story

Related Stories:

• Microsoft.com: Microsoft Small Business Server - How Does Linux Compare?(Feb 06, 2001)
• ComputerWorld: Microsoft Taking Linux's Pulse; Doug Miller at LinuxWorld(Feb 06, 2001)
• WinInfo: Microsoft Executives Trash Linux(Feb 05, 2001)
• IT-Director: Linux lands heavyweight punches, Microsoft jabs back(Feb 02, 2001)
• eWeek: At LinuxWorld, Microsoft exec has fighting words(Jan 31, 2001)
• Microsoft: Linux Destined to Fall by the Wayside(Jan 29, 2001)