06.13.09
SUSE Interoperability and Mono Good for Microsoft: Easier Migration to Windows
“Every line of code that is written to our standards is a small victory; every line of code that is written to any other standard, is a small defeat.”
–James Plamondon, Microsoft Technical Evangelist [PDF]
Summary: Microsoft longs for a more dominant position through control of APIs and Novell actively permits this to happen
LAST WEEK we wrote several posts about Novell integrating Mono with .NET and Windows [1, 2, 3]. To Microsoft, if GNU/Linux assimilates itself to Windows, then it becomes easier for Microsoft to embrace and extend it. It puts Microsoft behind the steering wheel.
“There are other new areas where Novell assimilates itself to Microsoft’s software.”It is abundantly clear that Mono is better to Microsoft than Java is. To Microsoft, Mono is a latch. That’s why it likes it so much and to repeat a ZDNet comment from the Microsoft blog (mentioned in the "Microsoft Moonlight" post):
“Sounds like one more way to help migrate from linux to Microsoft Windows. If this is implemented pulling data from a linux server will be that much easier until the server is no longer needed. I’m liking this interoperability.”
There are other new areas where Novell assimilates itself to Microsoft’s software. Here is the latest example from IDG (assimilation through submissive connectivity). It will be formally announced quite shortly.
Novell next week plans to release yet another tool that is the product of its three-year-old integration agreement with Microsoft, this time a plug-in for Microsoft’s management tools that lets users manage Novell’s Suse Linux.
The tool, which will ship June 19, was produced as part of Novell’s involvement with the Microsoft/Novell Interoperability Lab, which opened in 2007.
Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise Management Pack for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager, is designed to extend across seven SUSE Linux Enterprise OS services the monitoring capabilities within Operations Manager 2007 R2. Users will be able to monitor both Linux and Windows environments from one console.
We wrote about Operations Manager before [1, 2]. It is about putting Microsoft in charge of datacentres. Novell supports this and so does Xandros. Elsewhere in the news this week we found the following:
“More customers are moving to Microsoft, so legacy has been declining Novell was not growing for us.”
This shows who controls the relationship between Microsoft and Novell, does it not? █
Fred said,
June 13, 2009 at 5:02 pm
It’s not that other solutions like PHP, ruby, java etc. would not work under windows, but .NET is the only case I could think of, where it is a real advantage to use Windows, because of the inferiority of Mono compared to Microsoft’s .NET implementation in terms of performance, memory management etc. For all other FOS Web-Frameworks it would not make no sense to pay thousands of dollars for a Win-Server infrastructure, which even gives you a whole lot less than a Linux or BSD server.
It’s all a sign off Microsofts resignation to compete with free solutions on the level of quality. With Novell’s Mono they try to reach out to people, who are interested in free software and make them think, they would use an inferior platform.
David Gerard Reply:
June 14th, 2009 at 8:12 am
Current best advice to Wine users wanting to run a .NET application is to install Microsoft .NET 2.0 in Wine, ‘cos Mono is just too crappy for most stuff to work properly.
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
June 14th, 2009 at 8:29 am
It would be nice to see Mono taking an independent route (independent from Microsoft) and see how Microsoft responds. We discussed this last year.
David Gerard Reply:
June 14th, 2009 at 9:15 am
Then it would just be a substandard copy of Java. Oh wait, it IS a substandard copy of Java.
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
June 14th, 2009 at 9:33 am
But it’s controlled by the company which Ximian loves. Remember that Nat Friedman came from Microsoft and Miguel de Icaza wanted to work for Microsoft.
aeshna23 said,
June 13, 2009 at 8:16 pm
Fred makes an excellent point. With all due respect to the Wine project, the one think that I think Microsoft can do better than Linux is be Microsoft, that is the Windows OS, Microsoft Office, and .Net. It’s unlikely that we can re-implement .Net better than Microsoft, which is a strong argument that Mono never should have existed. The last thing the world needs another second-best technology.
In the big picture, Linux can only win if we can show superiority over the Microsoft products. .Net/Mono rigs the game against us.
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
June 14th, 2009 at 1:37 am
It’s the same with OOXML.
Needs Sunlight Reply:
June 14th, 2009 at 9:39 pm
@aeshna23: good point, except that M$ has not and does not ever compete on technical merits. A lot of superior technologies have been displaced or replaced by well-placed fifth-columnists, illegal tying (as opposed to illegal bundling), or just plain old extortion.