InformationWeek: Microsoft Takes Linux For A Test Drive

“In an effort to better understand its main source of
competition, Microsoft has deployed Linux and other open-source
software in a test center that’s typically used by its business
customers to experiment with Microsoft’s own products.

“At its Enterprise Engineering Center in Redmond, Wash.,
Microsoft has installed the Linux operating system, Apache Web
server, MySQL database, and Open LDAP directory-access software on
Intel-based computers, according to Martin Taylor, the executive
who recently assumed responsibility for Microsoft’s strategy for
competing against Linux.

“The project was started in May with an initial goal of
determining the effort involved in building the kind of open-source
platform that might be found in a typical business environment.
‘It’s an opportunity for learning for us,’ Taylor says. The goal is
to understand ‘what can you do and how can you do it’ using
open-source software, he says…”

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