Business Week: Why Linux Is Giving Microsoft a Migraine

[ Thanks to ll for this
link. ]

“The open-source operating system is now pushing into the very
market Windows 2000 is aimed at: Corporate IT departments.”

“If the words didn’t send a chill down the spine of every
Microsoft shareholder, they should have. At a January investment
conference, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer declared: “Linux is our
enemy No. 1.” A few weeks later, James Allchin, who oversaw the
rollout of Microsoft’s Windows 2000 software, went so far as to
call Linux “a threat to the American way.”

“When the Colossus of Redmond’s top execs say stuff like that,
you know it has a problem. And what makes the comments even more
interesting is that Microsoft had gone out of its ways to ignore
Linux, ever since the open-source software first popped into the
consciousness of Corporate America two years ago.”

“That’s because Linux has stymied the rollout of Windows 2000.
Otherwise known as W2K, this year-old operating system was designed
to serve as Microsoft’s entree into the server world, which is the
fastest-growing portion of computer sales.”

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