[ Thanks to Kelly
McNeill for this link. ]
“This clarifies the point I wish to make. Ballmer and Gates have
completely lost touch with the small and medium systems market
place. There is a decidedly different Microsoft emerging as of
late. First we saw the shift of developer tools away from client /
server toward XML, Web based applications and Web-based software
distribution on a major scale. Then Windows 2000 is unfolded a year
and a half late with no less than four (count them 4) different
versions: Windows 2000 Professional, Windows 2000 Server, Windows
2000 Advanced Server, and Windows 2000 Datacenter Server. Each of
these essentially identical products came bearing an increasingly
higher price tag. But, even the outrageous pricing structure of the
Win2K product line is not the thing that is most surprising.”
“I recently had to do a side-by-side comparison for a project I
was assigned to. The comparison was to pit the lowly Linux against
the powerhouse Microsoft (or so some would believe). The result was
a white paper that outlines the essential points anyone must
consider when trying to choose between Linux and Windows 2000 in
the various versions. To my pleasant surprise, Linux outperforms
and out classes Windows 2000 in ALL respects, even in clustered
large server farm applications. So much so that the Ohio
Supercomputer Center just installed a 128-processor complex using
Linux on SGI hardware. Linux, not Windows 2000 Datacenter, Linux!
And not a hacked up version that was special for this installation
either. Linux as it comes from SGI (a SuSe implementation with
software and hardware extensions for SMP load balancing and
fail-over for all you flamers). The Microsoft spec sheets show that
one cluster can only go up to 64 processors. A limitation that
obviously was a major consideration here. Microsoft is decidedly
loosing its’ grip on the corporate and datacenter server market.
All of their “eggs” are in the Active Directory basket (pardon the
metaphor). That is the only striking difference between Win2K and
Linux from a feature-to-feature comparison perspective….”
“Is Linux the dominant player in the OS battle? Not just
yet. There is a pretty large hurdle that must be breached first.
The mentality of Linux developers is one of a “cottage
industry.” Thousands of programmers worldwide are pounding
away at source code for the gratification of just contributing to
the overall good of Linux Open Source. While this seems noble and
altruistic, it will not help to proliferate the use of Linux.
Before you flamers warm up your keyboard, consider the facts about
the computer world. The majority of potential users of Linux and
Linux software are not geeks like you. In fact, the potential user
is the average ordinary non-techie. They want a computer to turn
on, start up, and run with as little attention as possible. It must
perform common functions that (admittedly) Microsoft has spoiled
them to expect — Word processing, Spreadsheet, Database, Web
browsing, email and personal information management….”