"Fear of Linux and an attempt to use its desktop muscle
to protect Windows server sales may be behind Microsoft's
apparently confused strategy over the CIFS protocol, according to
Jeremy Allison, co-author of the widely used Samba open-source
code, which uses the protocol to link Windows clients to Unix and
Linux servers.
Allison's statements add to outspoken criticism that has already
been aimed at Microsoft by Network Appliance. NetApp has publicly
accused Microsoft of "violence" and of seeming to be "motivated by
paranoia and greed" in its decisions to drop support for CIFS in
key applications such as Exchange.
He told ComputerWire last week: "Microsoft is about control.
When you lose control of something, you might as well end it and
start over again by putting your development efforts into something
new." Microsoft's ambiguous stance on the issue may be the result
of infighting on the Redmond campus, he added."
