An update on the war against Microsoft’s war against Linux, May 05, 2008

Regular readers will know that I’ve rallied against Microsoft’s so-called “Get the facts” site for the last fortnight. Rather than give legitimate comparisons facing off Windows servers vs Linux options the site opts for bunkum and hogwash with sensational headlines that have no underlying substance. Here’s the state of play.

Bob Muglia, who handles servers and tools for Microsoft, has announced a further expansion of system management at Microsoft's Management Summit 2008. With the usual modesty we have come to expect of Microsoft, Muglia said in Las Vegas that IT management and enterprises would be re-defined – nothing more, nothing less.

Microsoft PR threw down the gauntlet; “see how Windows Server 2008 stacks up versus Linux,” they say. There’s a “Get the Facts” URL being promoted with claims of direct comparisons between the two operating systems. Anyone reading the headlines alone could be fooled into thinking there’s substance to be found.

Linux and Unix software from Microsoft? That will be one of the upshots of Microsoft's proposed buyout of Fast Search & Transfer, Microsoft officials said today. But that doesn't mean you'll see Microsoft software shifting platforms.

At the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, Bill Gates gave his thoughts on where the pharmaceutical industry was going, and where it should be going. However, he also slipped up a bit and criticized the GNU General Public License (GPL).

Microsoft sees the ultra-low cost PC market as a significant opportunity and plans to pursue it with vigor, according the Kevin Turner, Microsoft's chief operating officer.

In an ominous sign for Microsoft's growth prospects in emerging regions, countries that represent the world's fastest growing tech markets voted against accepting the company's latest Microsoft Office document format as an international standard.

A few weeks ago, Microsoft rolled out what’s arguably its most important product this year: Windows Server 2008, the operating system for corporate server computers. It’s a cornerstone to a bunch of other Microsoft software, and it will be used by businesses large and small.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer recently announced his company's "Interoperability Initiative", a pledge to work together with the open-source world for both mutual benefit, and the benefit of customers and users. Given its past history, it's impossible to take Microsoft's claims at face value, but they certainly do warrant closer inspection.

Windows XP comes to the tiny Eee PC this month and Asus has its sights set on students.

Microsoft yesterday announced a beta of its Microsoft Office Live Workspace beta, an online platform were users can store documents and share them with others. Reviews of Microsoft Office Live Workspace have been varied but if you’re running Linux you won’t get to use the Live Workspace at all.

It seems that the £200 ultraportable Asus Eee PC can do no wrong. The size of a paperback, weighing less than a kilogram, with built-in Wi-Fi and using Flash memory instead of a hard drive for storage, the Eee PC has been winning positive comments not just from hyperventilating hardware reviewers, but also from ordinary people who have actually bought it.

Executive Director of The Linux Foundation Jim Zemlin blasted Microsoft's attempt to create a second certified international standard document format for Office Open XML (OOXML), calling Microsoft's argument for two standards "ridiculous" and "disingenuous."

European antitrust regulators on Wednesday fined Microsoft $1.3 billion for failing to comply with a 2004 judgment that the company had abused its market dominance.

Microsoft made headlines yesterday for its overtures to the open-source software community, including some that practically cast the move as a surrender by the company. "Microsoft to Open Source: You Win," declared the Web Worker Daily blog.

Alpine already offers a number of products, including global positioning systems, that run atop a version of Microsoft's Windows operating system designed for vehicular use.

In a few short weeks, it will be time for national standards bodies to decide whether the Microsoft Office Open XML specification will be accepted as an ISO standard or not.

Analysts and money managers have a suggestion for Yahoo shareholders mulling over the $44.6 billion buyout bid from Microsoft: Take the money and run.

Wayne Kelly, leader of the open source Ruby.Net development project, announced last week that he intends to discontinue development of Ruby.Net and join up with Microsoft's IronRuby open source efforts. This might sound good on the surface, but it is a bad idea.

Articles about Microsoft's bid have probably tired you to death by now, but this article discusses one particular aspect of the potential takeover, namely its effect on GNU/Linux and BSD users. Here's a point-by-point analysis of the impact, covering several of the key issues:

IT managers considering the future of their organization's desktops need to be wary of the amount of dependence workers have on Microsoft Office documents -- which cause the most lock-in, according to one consultant.

Previously, Microsoft has reached Linux accords with Samsung, Novell, LG Electronics, and Linux distributor Xandros.

If you read my blog yesterday, you noticed my entry about Microsoft's move to retire XP and effectively force Windows shops into a wasteful migration to Vista.

Lesson learned: Just because something can run two operating systems doesn't mean it's a "dual-boot" system.

It's a threat Microsoft can't let stand: the entire third world learning Linux as children, and growing up to use it. And Microsoft is going to get its way.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer once called Linux a cancer. Now, thanks to his company's alliance with Novell, he's probably labeling the open source OS as something much more benign.

Developers of open-source Samba software will find their work a little easier thanks to an agreement with Microsoft, signed Thursday, that will give them access to previously secret data on how the Windows operating system works.

Microsoft's forthcoming Windows Server 2008 provides a two-for-one bonus: virtualization software with the operating system itself, and potentially closer integration with some Linux operating systems than it has ever offered before, according to an early, initial look at the server's Release Candidate 1 (RC1).

Opera argues that because each version of Windows comes with only IE preinstalled, Microsoft has an unfair advantage against rivals like Opera and Firefox.

A year since its launch, there is only the smallest of fairy cakes for Vista. Although Microsoft claims high achievements for its new Windows operating system, the sense on the ground is that the OS is lagging badly behind people's expectations. Meanwhile sprightly geriatric XP is about to get a new shot of monkey glands in Service Pack 3.

It's been at least a week since the last bout of Microsoft FUD hit the wires, so I guess it was time for a new wave. Today's FUD comes from an article Microsoft released on how its security compares with that of Linux. It should come as no surprise that Windows comes off as the Second Coming while Linux is left on the wrong side of Acheron.

Almost a year on from the release of Microsoft's Windows Vista, only 13 percent of companies say they expect to move all desktops to the operating system, according to a survey released this week. Furthermore, adoption of Linux continues to gather pace, with a particular emphasis on the desktop emerging.

The majority of IT professionals worry that migrating to Windows Vista will make their networks less stable and more complex, according to a new survey.

Microsoft just isn't relevant to my daily computing. I don't need the programs that run on its operating systems; for the most part, I have programs as good or better, and those that aren't as good are adequate and improving quickly.

Users won't be booting up Vista PCs any time soon, according to a recent survey, which revealed a majority of IT professionals worry that migrating to Vista will reduce stability and introduce too much complexity into their environments.

The man in charge of Microsoft's strategy for living in harmony with Linux lays out the company's opportunities with open source and the open source business model.

Microsoft has long claimed that Linux violates its patents, but has refused to be specific. A recent deal between the software company and a printer maker may offer a clue.

Microsoft and industry body the Computing Technology Industry Association have teamed up to drive the adoption of Office Open XML in the Philippines.

Microsoft and Novell are using the one-year anniversary of their interoperability agreement to tout the increasing number of enterprise customers who are signing up because of the benefits offered through the collaboration.

At the time, the news that Novell and Microsoft were becoming partners was shocking. But, a year into the alliance, what has really come from it?

Microsoft is a tremendous competitor in every market in the world. And according to a letter written by Mandriva Linux CEO Francois Bancilhon, it's so bent on winning that it undercut a deal between the Nigerian government and the Linux vendor.

I will note that Nigeria's business center, Lagos, is one of the most corrupt cities on the planet. Microsoft, never one to let a mere bagatelle such as the law stand in the way of doing business, fits right in.

Nigerian schools bought thousands of PCs with Mandriva Linux pre-installed but after words from Microsoft, they switched to Windows.

Microsoft is making its Virtual Machine Additions for Linux available for download in a 32- and a 64-bit version. Installing the software is said to improve the running of Novell's SuSE Linux Enterprise Server and Red Hat Enterprise Linux as guest systems under Microsoft's Virtual Server 2005.

Microsoft wants to bring its Windows operating system to the low-cost XO laptop for underprivileged children. It is currently working to adapt a basic version of Windows XP to be compatible.

There's a scene in the 2004 movie Mean Girls in which the most popular girl in the film's fictional high school finds out that a friend who now is a fast-rising social rival plans to throw a party without inviting her.

My colleague over at Microsoft Watch, Joe Wilcox, declared that "Microsoft bowed before the EU and took its whipping." Eh, after a couple of days to look at the decision, I don't think so. At best, I'd say the European Union got the more favorable end of a draw.

Microsoft and Turbolinux, a major Linux distributor in Japan and China, announced on Oct. 22 that they had signed a business deal that advances Linux-Microsoft Windows Server interoperability, furthers research and development collaboration, and provides IP (intellectual property) assurances for Turbolinux users.

The European Union said Monday that Microsoft is now in compliance with its antitrust rulings -- paving the way for greater use of open source operating systems like Linux in the workgroup server market.

Microsoft has given up its nine-year fight against antitrust regulators in Europe, saying yesterday that it would not challenge a court judgment from last month and would share technical information with rivals on terms the software giant had long resisted.

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