“The Windows 2000’s launch is the biggest Microsoft to-do since
the launch of Windows 98 two years ago. But unlike anything that
came before it, 2000 is really gunning for ‘e-business’ dollars,
competing with the likes of Unix and Linux. … According to just
about all the independent surveys bandied about, the majority of
Microsoft’s business clients plan to sit back and let others be the
guinea pigs this year.”
“In a Merrill Lynch survey of 50 CIOs released Jan. 31, only
four respondents (8%) could see replacing Unix servers with Windows
2000 ones — even though Windows-based servers cost a third as
much. At the same time, 15 of them (30%) planned to try out Linux
soon, which analyst Chris Milunovich interprets as a threat to
Microsoft. Windows’ lack of reliability and scalability are cited
by technology professionals as its two main faults.”
“We called on PurchasePro’s (PPRO) chief technology officer,
Mike Ford, to compare the systems from his Internet-centric point
of view. Since last summer, Ford has turned his
business-to-business company from a mostly Windows shop, to a
mostly Unix and Linux shop. ‘I did my due diligence,’ he says of
the decision. He looked at Windows, Unix, Linux and even IBM (IBM)
mainframes. And Ford was sent a test (beta) version of 2000, but he
didn’t think it was as reliable as Unix. ‘We need a 24-by-seven
operating system,’ he says.”