I was out of town over the weekend and busy with another project yesterday. This story might be of interest to those like myself who don't enjoy being controlled by Microsoft, and it's blantantly monopolistic, anti-competitive efforts to force us to buy their lousy software. Did you realize they do not even ship a text editor with spellchecking? That's right, you pay (how many hundreds) for an operating system, then have to pay another big chunk of change just to do a spellcheck. Unreal. And unlike Macintosh, people are devoloping new things for Linux all the time. If only the GUI (graphical user interface) projects were further along, more people might switch. I'm still running Windows, as much as I wish I could say that I'm not. I would never host a web site on Windows, though. Most servers that get hacked run Windows. Anyway, if you remember this story from a few weeks back:
Though optimistic about growth opportunities, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer remains cautious about the vendor's near- and midterm picture, according to a company memo examined by CRN.Linux, the open-source operating system that has dogged Microsoft's Windows platform, appears to remain a top-of-mind consideration. "In this environment of lean IT budgets and concerns about Microsoft's attention to customers, noncommercial software such as Linux and OpenOffice is seen as interesting, good enough or free alternatives," Ballmer wrote in the memo.
IBM, another bete noir for Microsoft, also earned some ink in the memo. "IBM's endorsement of Linux has added credibility and an illusion of support and accountability, although the reality is there is no center of gravity or central body investing in the health and growth of noncommercial software or innovating in critical areas like engineering, manageability, compatibility and security," Ballmer added....
In the memo, Ballmer reiterated the open-source threat to Microsoft. "Noncommercial software products in general, and Linux in particular, present a competitive challenge for us and our entire industry, and they require our concentrated focus and attention," he wrote.
He again warned that the General Public License structure used in the open-source arena prohibits commercialization of software, "thereby undermining an ingredient essential to innovation and to addressing key elements of an integrated platform such as a product road map, fixing issues, improving documentation and so forth."
Licensing fees an essential ingredient for innovation, OS road maps, fixes, and improved documentation? Apparently not a sufficient ingredient! How else can Microsoft explain their failure in all of those areas despite all the price gouging? In my view, widely used operating systems should all be open source, but with a standards body and standard distributions to provide a support structure, as well as beta versions for hackers. Regardless, this breaking story should definitely cause Microsoft some angst:
LINUX CREATOR LINUS TORVALDS JOINS OSDLFirst OSDL Fellow Will Devote Himself Exclusively to Linux Development
BEAVERTON, OR, and SANTA CLARA, CA, June 17, 2003 -- OSDL, a non-profit, global consortium of leading technology companies dedicated to accelerating the adoption of Linux, and Transmeta Corporation, the leader in efficient computing, today announced that Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, will join OSDL as the first OSDL Fellow.
As an OSDL fellow, Linus will work exclusively on leading the development of Linux, the open source software that he created in 1991 as a university student in Finland. Torvalds will dedicate himself now full-time to guiding a distributed team of thousands of Linux developers around the world. At OSDL, he will have hands-on access to its state-of-the-art computing resources and test facility. He will also help set priorities and direction for the Lab's different industry initiatives.
"It feels a bit strange to finally officially work on what I've been doing for the last twelve years, but with the upcoming 2.6.x release it makes sense to be able to concentrate fully on Linux," Torvalds said. "OSDL is the perfect setting for vendor-independent and neutral Linux development."
Founded in 2000, OSDL has data centers in Portland, Oregon and Yokohama, Japan used by Linux developers around the world. With investment backing from Computer Associates, Fujitsu, Hitachi, HP, IBM, Intel, NEC and others, the lab sponsors key industry projects, including industry initiatives to enhance Linux for use in corporate data centers (Data Center Linux) and in telecommunications networks (Carrier Grade Linux). OSDL is increasingly being recognized as the center-of-gravity for the Linux industry: an important and independent central body that invests in the growth and innovation of Linux for the benefit of customers.
Here is part of the email Linus sent out explaining the move:
Posted by Mike at June 17, 2003 08:51 PM | TrackBack
The other big news - well, for me personally, anyway - is that I've
decided to take a leave-of-absense after 6+ years at Transmeta to
actually work full-time on the kernel.Transmeta has always been very good at letting me spend even an
inordinate amount of time on Linux, but as a result I've been feeling a
little guilty at just how little "real work" I got done lately. To fix
that, I'll instead be working at OSDL, finally actually doing Linux as
my main job....OSDL and Transmeta will have a joint official (read: "boring". You
should have seen the bio - that didn't make it - that I suggested for
myself for it ;) press-release about this tomorrow morning, but I just
wanted to say thanks to Transmeta. It has been a special place to work for, and hello to OSDL that I hope will be the same.Snif. I'm actually all teary-eyed.
Linus