How Microsoft and Massachusetts Defused a Political Battle Over ODF, Dec 04, 2006

The topic of document formats may have an arcane air to it, but it matters deeply to the world’s richest software company.

Microsoft Corp. spent a considerable amount of time, money and energy trying to convince corporate IT shops that moving from Windows to Linux servers wouldn't make sense -- but at least for now, it's not clear it had to bother.

Open-source zealots may continue to play a part in instigating the spread of Linux across the European continent, nearly 14 years after Linus Torvalds hatched the operating system in Finland. But private corporations and public-sector users in Europe typically cite pragmatic reasons for taking up the open-source operating system.

In an interview at Red Hat's inaugural user conference here, CEO Matthew Szulik said that the best opportunities for the company's open-source software stack lie outside the US.

Continental Airlines encountered a bit of turbulence last year when it decided to shift the ticket-reissue application it had built for Unix-based servers to a full open-source software stack with a 64-bit database server

"It's not a science project anymore," says Julie Giera, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc. "At this point, Linux shouldn't be different than any other commercial software package you buy. The rules should be the same. The level of scrutiny should be the same, and the process for approval should be the same."

One of the "birds of a feather" evening sessions at the LinuxWorld Conference & Expo was called "Year of the Linux Desktop ... Again." And the consensus among the handful of nighthawks at the session was that this still won't be desktop Linux's year.

IT managers who once used Linux chiefly to support Web and file-and-print servers said at last week's LinuxWorld Conference & Expo here that they're now running key applications and databases on Linux-based systems—a sign that the open-source software is penetrating deeper into corporate enterprises.

Which Linux loss bothered you the most?

It depends on how you define a loss. If it's a specific opportunity, I don't feel good about Munich mostly because it keeps coming up.

But a year or so into this, I still get asked. It's like Jason or Freddy of my childhood. You put him in the lake, and he keeps coming back.

Ford currently uses versions of Unix from Sun Microsystems Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and IBM. But it's considering more widespread use of Linux on Intel Corp. hardware for some of its server-based applications, primarily because of the potential cost benefits, said George Surdu, director of global IT infrastructure at Ford.

"Do we believe Linux will have a home in Ford Motor Co.? The answer is absolutely yes," said Surdu. "Will it be the be-all, end-all for Ford Motor Co.? No way. But we are very encouraged and pretty excited about Linux in certain spaces."