Summary: Microsoft at real risk of losing a most major client and Apple clients are given bad patches

A proprietary Microsoft failure at the London Stock Exchange (LSE) was one of epic proportions and it was important to us because LSE was used as Microsoft's anti-GNU/Linux "role model". Microsoft's stranglehold on the UK government has its limits and the grip may be slipping now that the LSE is pressured to dump Microsoft altogether.

As news emerged of the LSE acquisition, IBM also waded into the fray. A spokesperson said there was a general “move to Linux” among stock exchanges, claiming that the LSE was one of the last large exchanges to use Microsoft .Net. But he declined to talk more specifically on the suitability of Microsoft systems in such environments.

Read the comments too. If Microsoft loses LSE, then there is little hope for Microsoft in anything which is mission critical.

As an additional note, Apple too is failing to deliver reliability. Just watch what happens to iPhones, based on the British technology press:

i. Apple sends iPhones into 'Coma Mode'

Complaints about Apple's new iPhone OS 3.1 are flooding the web, with one poster calling it "the buggiest update that Apple has yet released for the iPhone."

The problems being reported are legion. They include iPhones becoming totally unresponsive, dropped calls, poor battery life, difficulties with Wi-Fi connections, failed Microsoft Exchange syncing, dead GPS service, loss of signal after syncing, tethering no longer working in "legally" unlocked phones outside the US, and more.

ii. Apple software sends Iphones into a coma

APPLE HAS BEEN avoiding questions recently about an alarming quirk with its new Iphone OS 3.1.

According to Apple's own bulletin board, fanboys are claiming that Iphone OS 3.1 is "the buggiest update that Apple has yet released for the iPhone."

As always -- like Microsoft -- Apple chooses to just hide the problem. Exploding iPhones are a door of opportunity to Linux, but Apple resorts to bullying with patents and sabotage of interoperability against Linux phones. ⬆