NewsForge: OSDL CEO Expects Microsoft to Port Apps to Linux

“In a phone interview Friday, Open Source Development Labs
(OSDL) CEO Stu Cohen said, ‘As Linux continues to grow, Microsoft
will port some of their applications to run on Linux.’ There has
been speculation about this for years, and this is still
speculation, but Cohen is head of an organization that says it is
‘increasingly being recognized as the center-of-gravity for the
Linux industry,’ and is rapidly proving himself at least as
effective a Linux marketer as the freckle-faced boy in IBM’s Linux
ads, so his speculations carry more weight than most.

“When Cohen took over as OSDL’s CEO last April, the group was
known primarily for its work on Carrier Grade Linux and other
projects of interest only to a narrow range of enterprise-level
tech types. Under Cohen, OSDL has become the world’s leading Linux
advocacy group. It has expanded its range of lab projects, which is
nice, but Cohen’s biggest coup in a marketing sense was probably
hiring Linus Torvalds (who is technically on leave from his old
employer, OSDL member Transmeta, and is an ‘OSDL Fellow’ who works
from home, not a 9-to-5 employee)…”

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