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Microsoft acknowledges Linux threat to Windows (Read 9508 times)
Rad
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Microsoft acknowledges Linux threat to Windows
Aug 8th, 2009 at 5:44pm
 
Microsoft acknowledges Linux threat to Windows

http://www.computerworlduk.com/toolbox/open-source/open-source-business/news/ind...

Quote:
The move is an acknowledgement of the first viable competition from Linux to Microsoft's Windows client business, due mainly to the use of Linux on netbooks, which are rising in prominence as alternatives to full-sized notebooks.

"Netbooks opened Microsoft to the possibility that some other OS could get its grip on the desktop, however briefly," said Rob Helm, director of research for Directions on Microsoft. "Now it's alert to that possibility going forward."

In its annual Form 10-K report for the fiscal year ended June 30, Microsoft cited Red Hat and Canonical -- the latter of which maintains the Ubuntu Linux distribution -- as competitors to its client business, which includes the desktop version of its Windows OS.

Previously, Microsoft had only noted competition from Red Hat to its Server and Tools business, which includes the Windows Server version of the OS for server hardware, in its 10-K reports.

"Client faces strong competition from well-established companies with differing approaches to the PC market," Microsoft said in the filing. "Competing commercial software products, including variants of Unix, are supplied by competitors such as Apple, Canonical, and Red Hat."

http://mt4.radified.com/2009/04/learn-linux-ubuntu-virtual-machine-vmware-jaunty...

http://mt4.radified.com/2009/07/unix-linux-shell-bash-command-line-cli-terminal....
 
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MrMagoo
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Re: Microsoft acknowledges Linux threat to Windows
Reply #1 - Aug 8th, 2009 at 8:57pm
 
Just to be fair, Microsoft also cited Apple as a threat, although I think the wording they used was that competitors such as Apple, Red Hat, and Canonical are placing 'pressure' on their desktop business (not threatening it.)  It is significant because Microsoft has never acknowledged Linux as a competitor to its desktop market before.

Although Linux looked to storm the netbooks, Microsoft has regained much of that market.  Linux looks to be more of a threat on smart phones at the moment.  iPhone is all the rage, Android is gathering steam, Palm has all the headlines, even Blackberry is delivering constant improvements.  Meanwhile, Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6 is not a modern smart phone OS.  Just as Windows 7 was in a "must deliver" situation to keep people from losing all respect for Windows after Vista frustrated the industry, Windows Mobile 7 will have to have compelling features for Windows Mobile to regain respect against its competitors. 
 
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Re: Microsoft acknowledges Linux threat to Windows
Reply #2 - Aug 9th, 2009 at 12:51am
 
what percentage of servers do linux/microsoft have?
 
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MrMagoo
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Re: Microsoft acknowledges Linux threat to Windows
Reply #3 - Aug 9th, 2009 at 2:49am
 
It's harder to get the true number of Linux servers than it is to get the number of Linux desktops.  Just like on the desktop, most of the servers that run Linux aren't sold with Linux on them.  They come with Windows or (more often) no OS at all and Linux is installed by the admins.

You can estimate the usage of Linux desktops somewhat by checking what OS clients claim to be when they access web pages.  The http request often includes the client OS.  Most servers, however, aren't running around downloading public web pages.  They sit in the background, doing their job quietly, with no easy way for the public to count them.

The answer would vary by the type of server you are looking at.  Microsoft Exchange holds a large share of company email servers, and for good reason.  Few mail servers offer the features and strong integration of Exchange.  I've also seen MS SQL servers running a lot of smaller databases these days for some reason.  When you start looking at medium sized database servers, those tend to be Linux servers and MySQL or PostgreSQL.  Oracle databases running on high end Solaris, AIX (unix version made by IBM,) or HP Unix servers dominate the large databases.

Web servers are easier to measure, because you can go out and query web servers for their version.  It doesn't necessarily tell you the OS, but you can make an educated guess.  A survey in 2007 gave Apache 73% of the web server market.  Although Apache can run on almost any OS, it is commonly run on Linux.  FreeBSD is not uncommon either.  I've heard of companies running Apache on Windows, but in my experience that's the exception.

http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/article.php/3673386

In my experience (which is a very small sample size compared the the whole industry, but the data is well studied,) Linux owns the server market.  I've worked for a handful of companies, each selling different technology (an ISP, a top Silicon Valley e-commerce site, a cloud-based services provider...,) and all of them used Linux for more than 95% of their servers for customer facing applications.  Then again, I don't go out applying for jobs that start out with "Seeking strong Windows Administrator..."

Windows seems to be a lot more popular for the in-house IT stuff (email, Sharepoint, file servers, domain controllers, etc.)  But as far as the servers that run the applications that make companies money, it's Linux as far as the eye can see.
 
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Re: Microsoft acknowledges Linux threat to Windows
Reply #4 - Aug 9th, 2009 at 3:59pm
 
what differentiates a netbook from a laptop? (specifically)

seems a netbook is just a small laptop.

has anybody ever ventured to speculate on a NUMBER (percentage) regarding linux's coverage of the server market?
 
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Re: Microsoft acknowledges Linux threat to Windows
Reply #5 - Aug 9th, 2009 at 6:44pm
 
Rad wrote on Aug 9th, 2009 at 3:59pm:
what differentiates a netbook from a laptop? (specifically)

Netbooks are smaller, less powerful, and cheaper.  Other than that, it's pretty much like a laptop.

The original idea, which started with the Eee PC, was to have just enough memory/cpu/disk space to load an OS and open a browser.  Then, you do all your business online - webmail, Google Docs, etc.  The idea is that if your computer is powerful enough to run web applications, you can let the web do the rest of the work.  With all the heavy lifting done by the web, your computer needs a lot less horsepower of its own.  A smaller screen and keyboard made the Eee PC more portable than most laptops.  The low powered CPU meant that it could have a smaller battery (making it lighter) and still have a long battery life (up to 10 hours, I think.)  This is exactly the type of computer Google's new ChromeOS is targeted at. 

The lines between netbook, notebook, and laptop are pretty blurred these days.  Some consumers didn't understand what they were buying, leading to a big disappointment when they realized how underpowered the computer was.  Unaware consumers were also disappointed to find their netbooks running Linux.  If you just run Firefox, it doesn't matter, but when you think you should be able to do everything a regular computer does, you expect Windows.  These consumers created a market for higher power netbooks running Windows, which really are just small laptops.

Rad wrote on Aug 9th, 2009 at 3:59pm:
has anybody ever ventured to speculate on a NUMBER (percentage) regarding linux's coverage of the server market?

I don't know.
 
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Re: Microsoft acknowledges Linux threat to Windows
Reply #6 - Aug 16th, 2009 at 12:57am
 
Both Google & Yahoo run Linux (Google has it's own customised version, Yahoo runs FreeBSD, similar to Linux, and derived from the same UNIX base).

Fedora website has statistics on it's use - Who uses Fedora ?
 

Linux User 483705  |  (openSUSE 11.1,  Ubuntu 9.04,  i686)   w/ Windows XP
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Re: Microsoft acknowledges Linux threat to Windows
Reply #7 - Sep 16th, 2009 at 10:40am
 
Interesting OS chart here
http://marketshare.hitslink.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=8

Lot of other metrics for comparison available also.
 
 
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