Microsoft: All XML, all the time, Sep 12, 2002

(References to Linux in this interview with MS's Jim Allchin)
What's your current assessment of Linux? Last time we spoke you said you were concerned. Any change?
I'm just as concerned. They are a very serious competitor. We think very hard about it

Linux has won in the server market because it scales and is robust. It didn't win by slick marketing, because there wasn't much, apart from the cartoon picture of a penguin and a helping hand from IBM. It won by quality and viral proliferation.

This is bad news for Microsoft. Most of the firm's server products run only on the Windows server. If Windows becomes marginalised, then its server revenues will decline.

American Microsystems, Ltd. (AML) announced a new family of Linux-based wireless data collection products. AML's new wireless data collection products maximize flexibility, performance, and value in mobile data collection computing and are ideally suited for real-time, information-intensive applications in retail, distribution, warehousing, manufacturing, and health care.

After years of watching Microsoft Corp consolidate its power, a band of software rivals is trying to build a beachhead in desktop computers.

Their chief weapon is the Linux operating system, which is popular in back-office computers called servers yet has generally flopped in personal computers. But a combination of technology improvements, economic pressures and a change in Microsoft's pricing is increasing the appeal of Linux-based PCs in some business settings, such as customer-service centres, stores and factories

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