VNU Net: Microsoft bows to pressure from Unix users

By James Middleton, VNU
Net

Microsoft has admitted that it cannot dominate the
enterprise alone, and has boosted its support for Unix
integration.

The company last week said that the next release of Windows
Services for Unix (SFU) would tighten its integration with the
high-end OS.

It has acknowledged for the first time that enterprise users
will stick with the Unix and Linux platforms. Srini Koppolu,
managing director of Microsoft’s SFU development centre, said:
“It’s strategic for us to move Windows into corporates that have
Unix as well, whether we like it or not. Most corporates have mixed
environments and there is a need for the two operating systems to
interoperate.”

By incorporating the Interix product that Microsoft acquired
when it purchased Software Systems last September, SFU version 2
will allow users to port Unix based scripts and applications over
to the Windows platform. Support extends to all major flavours of
Unix and Linux. “A key message that came back to us, is that users
want an integrated suite that takes care of the typical needs of
interoperability,” said Koppolu.

Phil Dawson, analyst at the Meta Group, said that increased
interoperability with Unix was driven by its realisation that users
had mixed enterprise environments.

Microsoft was also forced into a volte-face last week over its
Windows ME consumer OS. It had originally stripped out all
networking elements, claiming that users did not need them at home.
But it has now backed down in the face of user opposition and said
that Windows ME will now contain a NetWare client.