Ballmer bullish on future, bearish on Linux, Sep 02, 2004

Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer addressed a gathering of software industry leaders here on Wednesday, touting his company's vision for a bright future, while casting doubt on alternatives to his company's Windows operating system, in particular Linux.

Speaking to members of the Massachusetts Software Council, Ballmer said he was excited about the promise of technological advances in the next decade. But Ballmer shed his visionary mantle soon after, taking shots at the open source software development community and warning participants to think twice before adopting open source products like Linux.

With SuSE now officially hitting Indian shores as Novell's Linux spearhead, Microsoft has another face in the enterprise space to contend with; or does it? Has the matrix changed, or do the rules of the game still remain the same?

Lindows is dead. Long live Linspire.

On Wednesday, Linspire Inc. announced the official completion of its global name change from Lindows to Linspire. Linspire will no longer use the term Lindows in any of its current marketing materials, Web site or retail packaging.

Marketed by Mandrakesoft, Mandrakelinux is promoted as a friendly Linux operating system that offers ease of use for both servers and the desktop.

Mandrakesoft makes the OS available in several languages and promises that it is far more stable -- and just as easy to operate -- as the Windows and Macintosh operating systems.

So, if Mandrakelinux is so user-friendly and powerful, why is it not a household word -- even compared to other Linux flavors?

In a word: marketing. There is a widespread, if not universally shared, perception that Mandrakesoft's marketing efforts are far less sophisticated then its technical attributes.

The Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) plans to host an enterprise-focused conference in the San Francisco area early next year. The three-day OSDL Enterprise Linux Summit (OSDL-ELS), which will be held in Burlingame, CA from January 31 through February 2, will include three educational session tracks and a full day of tutorials that address topics and issues around successful Linux deployments in real-world scenarios, the group says.

IBM and Intel plan to open up their eServer blade platform to seed the market for future designs, the companies plan to announce Thursday.

IBM officials positioned the move as one that was necessary to grow the market from the "early adopter" phase to the "mass adopter" phase. With the specifications—which Intel Corp. and IBM plan to provide royalty-free—customers can design their own platforms around IBM's blades, executives said.

California lawmakers and administrators got an earful on open source software Friday - a state government panel considered proposals that would boost government use of Linux and other technologies.

The proposals appear in a lengthy report from the California Performance Review Commission, charged by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger with figuring out how to make state government work better and cheaper.

In mid-July, Lindows agreed to change its name to Linspire as part of a court settlement with archnemesis Microsoft. Now, with $20 million in hand from Microsoft, also due to the settlement, the company will put more emphasis on business deals around pre-installed Linux PCs, said Michael Robinson, Linspire's president.

In an interview with LinuxPlanet, Robinson used the term "ferocious" to describe Microsoft's legal attacks on Lindows. During a long series of court suits, Microsoft contended that the Linux name impinged on the Windows trademark.

Once reserved primarily for use only by college students and hobbyists, open source software is fast gaining market share within mainstream business.

"It's available, it's manipulative, you can make enhancements to it," explained Paul Klimas, director of the city of Grand Rapids' Geographic Information System (GIS).

"In some cases it's more reliable because of that flexibility."

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