Toronto Linux User Group Online is invited to the Microsoft Platform Technical Briefing Dinner (fwd)

Francois Ouellette fouellet-cpI+UMyWUv9BDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org
Sat Mar 19 14:28:05 UTC 2005


I have been involved with a vendor of big iron hardware that was heavily
committed to Microsoft and I can tell you that M$ is deeply disturbed with
the emergence of Linux and Open Source in general. But this time, there is
no easy target to pursue in order to contain the phenomenon: how can you go
after tens of thousands of voluntary developers and distributors of "free"
distros? When a company that has been a M$ partner for years announces that
Linux will now be offered on their equipment I can tell you they receive
lots of "communications" from high-ranked M$ executives telling them their
disappointment, and at the same time reminding them of the importance of
"keeping" or "re-enforcing" their existing commercial relationship.

It is true that many executives have never seen or heard of Linux, there is
a growing number of them reading about open source in magazines, or hearing
water cooler conversations about it, but there are more and more cases of
large organizations giving open source a chance and realizing all the
benefits of not being locked-in a single-vendor technology that dictates
them which technology and hardware to buy, and at which price.

True, M$ is a formidable machine with 90% of the desktop market, but they
have lots of difficulty increasing their presence in the server world while
Linux is slowly taking over from the proprietary UNIXes and the same time
gaining ground for new systems. I have been working on many proposals where
M$ was fiercely trying to sell their Server 2003 in an enterprise server
solution and I can tell you their success rate is not what they would like
to see...

I agree that we shall not ignore or underestimate the "enemy", and keep an
open mind on the current market offerings, especially when can get a free
lunch or dinner after listening to some FUD.

But those events where they openly invite open source proponents might as
well work against them, when people like our colleague Clifford brings a
laptop loaded with open source goodies and show it to the attendees!

Remember, the best things in life are free, and so is Open Source.

Openly yours,

  François Ouellette
<fouellet-cpI+UMyWUv9BDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org>




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