Linux Online - Linux insurrection has got giant Microsoft's attention

Linux insurrection has got giant Microsoft's attention


Publication:	Seattle Post-Intelligencer	Date:	Aug 18 2003

It's perhaps the last place a Linux enthusiast would expect to find all the software needed to run a Linux office for 1,000 people -- the Redmond headquarters of Microsoft Corp.

The software giant, which considers Linux one of the biggest threats to its business, recently finished installing all the hardware and software needed to do just that in its Enterprise Engineering Center, where Microsoft recreates business customers' systems to test and demonstrate Microsoft software deployed on their networks.

But that's as far as Linux will get within Microsoft, said Martin Taylor, the company's new strategist for Linux. The stack of servers is solely for research into the open-source software, in which the underlying code can be downloaded, shared and modified freely.