osOpinion: Microsoft – The Penguin’s Buddy

[ Thanks to Kelly
McNeill for this link. ]

“It is inconceivable that Microsoft would ever cozy up to
Open Source, but I believe that recent blunders by Microsoft will
aid its enemy’s cause. In particular, the widespread adoption of
Windows 2000 (W2k) on the desktop will give a push to the
widespread adoption of Linux as a server.”

“Here are a couple of good reasons why Unix servers should be
used in place of W2k Server:

• The price for the desktop version of W2k is $317 (I believe),
  but in order to use Active Directory the desktop must be connected
  to a W2k server, and these connections are about $1k each. A much
  cheaper alternative is to connect to a Linux or *BSD server running
  Samba…
• As Penguinistas are aware, Microsoft has embraced and extended
  Kerberos, a network authentication protocol using encryption. The
  original spec is freely available, but Microsoft’s extension will
  work properly only with other W2k servers; “Microsoft ties the
  Win2000 client to a Win2000 server through a Microsoft-specific
  version of Kerberos, so that existing users of Kerberos on Unix
  systems in the financial industry or academic community – where
  Kerberos is predominantly found – ‘are in a place of hurt,’ Ts’o
  said.”
• Microsoft wants to stop selling per-user licenses, partly
  because they are becoming paranoid about piracy. Instead they want
  to have applications reside on a server, and you would pay every
  time you downloaded and use them. Not surprisingly, “the cost of
  the service is going to be quite high.” If W2k servers become
  widely distributed, it will be easier for them to force this
  licensing model on their customers.”

Complete
Story