Microsoft Says IBM/Linux Their Biggest Threat

krypt0n0mic0n writes "An article at The Register shows that Microsoft sees IBM and Linux as the biggest threats to their market domination. Microsoft's Eric Rudder is quoted as saying that Linux is a "formidable" challenge and that "IBM is our greatest competitor. In the way they sell products and compete in corporate accounts." It goes on to say that they believe the NET server will be a challenge to these competitors."

Re:continued growth

[Anonymous Coward]

IBM announced a deal a few months ago that would see the NYSE move to DB2. Take that, Sybase!

Re:Good old Way-Back Machine..

[tshak]

they're still a very rock solid product. Not much the same can be said for most of the current M$ products, save perhaps Win 2k.


Or, if you want to be objective instead of bashing based on bias:

Software:
Win 2K (as mentioned)
SqlServer 2000
.NET (the Framework) and ASP.NET
Exchange Server 2000
VS.NET
IE 6.0.2600 (gotta love that build number!)
IIS 6.0 (okay, this isn't fair because it isn't even out - but _I_ know that it rocks from experience :-)
VS.NET (still needs work but is probably one of the most stable IDE's I've ever used)

Hardware:
MS IntelliMouse
XBox and peripherals (incredibly high quality, regardless of your console preference)
MS Joysticks (all of them)
OK... pretty much all MS hardware.

Re:Good old Way-Back Machine..

[mz001b]

OK... pretty much all MS hardware.

Umm.. the Microsoft Sound System was a pretty big flop in its day. All Microsoft hardware does not belong on this list.

Re:Why do they get away with their TCO nonsense?

[pavera]

I will have to agree with you on all points there.
especially the ease of use issues. I tried to run Win 2k server, its at least as difficult to understand as Linux, and in my opinion more so, because they hide everything behind wizards, so you never *really* know whats going on. Furthermore, I manage and maintain over 50 linux servers spread out from Phoenix, AZ to Salt Lake City, UT. I could never do this type of remote management with windows. Not ever. Well, I could but it would cost my clients a whole lot more, as I'd be flying to Phoenix ever other day... I used to work in an office with 8 win 2k servers, and 100 clients... we had an IT staff of 5 full time plus 5-10 techno-savvy employees from other departments would help us out with supporting their department's IT needs part time... for 108 machines.. now I'm managing 50+ servers, from my house, by myself... I'm quite sure the latter is cheaper. (Not to mention the $50,000 in licensing fees my clients would have had to pay to MS)

Re:Can you say 'embrace and extend'?

[catfood]

That's not new. You needed to buy all new tools for Component Object Model (COM), which is Microsoft's current mainstream programming model. Granted they were available for "upgrade" pricing and such, but the point is that Microsoft left the concept of portable code behind years ago. We've been writing Microsoft-specific C++ code for ten years now!