Playing the game
- Article 1 of 16
- LinuxUser & Developer, September 2003
Linux has had a huge impact on businesses and their software suppliers in the last two years.
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The biggest potential loser in the onrush of Linux is Microsoft, which has everything to lose from Linux overturning its dominance of the Intel market. It has already promoted Linux to Public Enemy Number Two – second only to a depressed US economy, according to CFO John Connors. Aware that cost is Linux’s biggest appeal, the company argues that with its products, “customers and partners benefit from a business advantage that helps people to be more productive - all at a lower total cost of ownership.” Nevertheless, it “recognises that customers have choices and that in some cases, Linux may be one of them.”
But it has still been forced to share the Windows source code with some of its trusted partners, offer massive discounts to avoid losing large deals, and even offer some of its own software for free in an effort to make Windows more attractive than Linux. It even has appointed a ten-year veteran of the company, Martin Taylor, to head up a unit looking at ways to fight Linux. He, in turn, is running Microsoft products head-to-head against open source products to see where Microsoft’s are lacking.
In contrast to operating systems vendors, software developers have little to lose and much to gain from Linux’s adoption. But with Linux now an almost unstoppable movement, even companies whose products are jeopardised by Linux’s success are having to include it in their product catalogues, while downplaying its capabilities.
As Martijn Dekkers, technical architect at services company Computacenter, suggests, “I think every vendor has its own agenda. Vendors with a stake in the data centre are pushing Linux primarily at the edge. Vendors with an investment in the desktop say it only works in the data centre. They’re all trying to push Linux away from where they’re trying to play. But I think if you take an objective view of the market, you will see Linux is playing a good game everywhere.”
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