02.20.08
Bill Gates Bashes GNU/Linux and Out Comes His Fear
“Linux is a very complete and sophisticated operating system. And there is a lot of work being done to improve it in and of itself, particularly to make it easier to use and easier for people to set up on their personal computers.”
Paul Maritz, Senior Vice President, Microsoft
A reader has just made a suggestion, one which he probably will nag us about repeatedly (albeit in a good and constructive way). “It would be smart to always include a reference and live links to the technologies Microsoft is trying to imitate or bury,” he says.
“One obvious component of operant conditioning is that along with each and every criticism, there should be a clear push towards the desired behavior or knowledge. That’s for the readers,” he says.
“It is probably web 2.0 stuff and Java Server pages, J2EE, to guess wildly at a few that Microsoft is trying to bury”He continues: “For Microsoft, if one fails to mention the products and technologies they are trying to distract you from, then Microsoft has still gained a win.”
A previous post on the subject which brought these suggestions spoke about Silverlight. “It is probably web 2.0 stuff and Java Server pages, J2EE, to guess wildly at a few that Microsoft is trying to bury,” says the reader. “Someone into web application development should be able to give some real relevant technologies,” he advised us.
Further: “Promoting MySQL, Postgresql, Apache (including Tomcat, Lenya, Lucene, etc), Java, Javascript, Perl, Python, NetBeans, Eclipse, Kdevelop, Qt, Qtopia, GTK+, wxWidgets and so on helps neutralize Microsoft’s anti-media tactics of saturate, diffuse and confuse.”
He gives an example: “I bet a lot of people don’t know that they could be making GUI-based programs with native look and feel for 3-4 platforms at once. Qt does that.”
Okay, so the reader appears to be right on point. We ought to advocate rather than negate. Watch, for example, the following new observations which are made on the very same subject in Bruce Perens’ Technocrat:
“Gates said students will want to try Microsoft’s tools because they’re more powerful than the open-source combination of Linux-based operating systems, the Apache Web server, the MySQL database and the PHP scripting language used to make complex Web sites.”
…sounds like someone’s in denial.
Bill Gates appear to be drawing attention to the technologies which worry him. He even includes (by name) the platform which Microsoft pretends to be negligible — GNU/Linux. Microsoft’s SEC filings suggest otherwise, but that’s where we are. Microsoft keeps that infamous poker face on.
An analyst who studies Microsoft almost exclusively, Joe Wilcox, adds this:
Microsoft is looking to get a whole lot back from its program. DreamSpark isn’t charity. It’s business–protecting Microsoft’s entrenched desktop-and-server software business model from competing products, and, most importantly, from the Web 2.0 platform.
Mind the fact that he agrees with us that it’s only charity in disguise. There are expectation for something to come in return. Microsoft has mastered the use of charity as a business tool, but that’s far from news [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]. █
Great said,
February 20, 2008 at 10:33 am
This shows how weak microsoft has become. They can no longer be in the OS business. Vista is a dog and there is no future versions of M$ OS coming. Even if they manage to make another version – it will just be another boltware. Every version of windows is going be a boltware over the previous.
They will keep loosing market share to Apple and Linux.
They might end up using BSD kernel someday. But that will be too late when they are just one step away from their own grave.
Apple = Rich people + Hip crowd
Linux = Server + Mobiles + Cheap PCs + Hackers + 3rd World country + FOSS users
Friends – destroy OOXML before it has any chance in future to raise it ugly head again. Burry it once and for all. Leave nothing. Wipe the word “OOXML” from this world. Dont miss this opportunity. The RING has to be thrown in the fires of mount doom. Do not back away at this last stage. March people and finish OOXML once and for all.
Let this be the trump of FOSS !!!
Ya !! I am going party like crazy if OOXML is rejected.
Next => OpenGL Vs. DirectX
Bring it ON !! Let the game begin. We want games on Linux !! Yaa !!!
M$ wouldnt do this unless they was some real bad trouble in Redmond. Their empire is falling. The DreamSpark is just a tiny window into how much big mess M$ is in. This project is too not going to make much difference. Linux is stealing the thunder. People are migrating – M$ is just feeling the heat. GNU/Linux has hit critical mass – there is no stopping. There is no future in M$ technology. Smart people have already realize this – they are jumping the sinking titanic.
R.I.P Windows. Give or Take 7-8 years.
This is the same history as Netware – once dominant now defunct. History repeats itself.
DOUGman said,
February 20, 2008 at 6:49 pm
I do not see M$ being the dominate player past 2018; I have advised businesses and others to start looking at alternate OS’s now while in doing so is easy.
D.
Roy Schestowitz said,
February 20, 2008 at 6:56 pm
2018? You’re looking far too far ahead. Microsoft’s big problems are today and it’s terrified of Google, combined with Free software that drives both servers and clients (facing SaaS and Web-based software).
One of the key issues is the need to stop OOXML, SharePoint and XAML before they spread too much across the Web, leaving plenty of cleanup work to be done later.