Comment Sponsors (Score 2) 723
Why is anyone surprised at this? Microsoft attacks anything that is a threat. Microsoft has always attacked a strong competitor with overwhelming market force. It will consistently produce more evidence of how poorly it's competitors' products 'truly' stands against its products.
Their corporate methodology has been clear since their beginning. They assume the competition's strengths into their products, and then they state that their product is then the superior product. Their tactics have always been obvious and simplistic, and their tactics have also been very effective, until now.
They face a quandary with Linux: how does a business compete with a product that has no specific vendor to attack? How do they compete with a product that is communistic in nature? It is more than their product's competitor; it is becoming their corporate nemesis. They cannot overwhelm something that has no boundaries, that is developed without regard for specific profit, and that has their own corporate policy as it's core design: 'Be the Borg.' -- take the best of your competition's strategies and products, and make it part of your own structure. Anyone who has followed the history of the computer's evolution will remember that Microsoft started as a forced progression of business policy into non-mainframe OS software development in the late 70's. Anyone who remembers the early days of the PC (or then known as microcomputer) will remember that the thought of 'licensed' software that was property of only the company that created it was laughed at initially as unworkable or unsustainable, but Microsoft succeeded in making that policy work. Microsoft grew rich on that one idea, and it is the reason that Microsoft has been able to achieve dominance in the OS arena.
BUT, Linux has changed something important, and Linus probably didn't realize how important what he did was at that time, or what part of it was important. Linux by itself would never have had the possibility of competing against any dominant OS. It would have been another hacked OS that would never have left the collegiate world. It IS the Open-source licensing structure that has added the needed element to the software that has made it into an upheaval in software design methodologies. It's the Open-source piece that has turned a lot of heads due to its impact on the software industry. This is due to the fact that Linux (and through Linux, the Open-source licensing structure) is an evolutionary change in software design. Linux started as a free, cooperatively evolving OS that has returned the unstructured human element to the process of business software development. Sadly, this human element has always existed in the academic community, but died in the business community with the domination of Microsoft as the dominant business model in the software industry. The corporate structure that has grownup around Linux is just a natural reaction of capitalism to anything that has the ability to produce revenue, but Linux remains a communistic product by it's licensing structure. And that's a good thing for it; it's the only way it will be able to remain a strong and vibrant competitor of Microsoft for the long term.
So, in the end, the analysis of Linux vs. Microsoft is a null argument. Microsoft cannot compete with a product that is not a product, but a movement. Linux is fundamentally restructuring corporate policy towards software development. I just hope Linux's impact will survive the greed that will try to control it's nature while the Open-source movement grows up.
And I hope the 'Borg' in Microsoft can change it's ways so that it can allow another dominant player into the game without it having to feel the need to annihilate it.
-- The violin is playing in the background for those who are listening to it too.
Their corporate methodology has been clear since their beginning. They assume the competition's strengths into their products, and then they state that their product is then the superior product. Their tactics have always been obvious and simplistic, and their tactics have also been very effective, until now.
They face a quandary with Linux: how does a business compete with a product that has no specific vendor to attack? How do they compete with a product that is communistic in nature? It is more than their product's competitor; it is becoming their corporate nemesis. They cannot overwhelm something that has no boundaries, that is developed without regard for specific profit, and that has their own corporate policy as it's core design: 'Be the Borg.' -- take the best of your competition's strategies and products, and make it part of your own structure. Anyone who has followed the history of the computer's evolution will remember that Microsoft started as a forced progression of business policy into non-mainframe OS software development in the late 70's. Anyone who remembers the early days of the PC (or then known as microcomputer) will remember that the thought of 'licensed' software that was property of only the company that created it was laughed at initially as unworkable or unsustainable, but Microsoft succeeded in making that policy work. Microsoft grew rich on that one idea, and it is the reason that Microsoft has been able to achieve dominance in the OS arena.
BUT, Linux has changed something important, and Linus probably didn't realize how important what he did was at that time, or what part of it was important. Linux by itself would never have had the possibility of competing against any dominant OS. It would have been another hacked OS that would never have left the collegiate world. It IS the Open-source licensing structure that has added the needed element to the software that has made it into an upheaval in software design methodologies. It's the Open-source piece that has turned a lot of heads due to its impact on the software industry. This is due to the fact that Linux (and through Linux, the Open-source licensing structure) is an evolutionary change in software design. Linux started as a free, cooperatively evolving OS that has returned the unstructured human element to the process of business software development. Sadly, this human element has always existed in the academic community, but died in the business community with the domination of Microsoft as the dominant business model in the software industry. The corporate structure that has grownup around Linux is just a natural reaction of capitalism to anything that has the ability to produce revenue, but Linux remains a communistic product by it's licensing structure. And that's a good thing for it; it's the only way it will be able to remain a strong and vibrant competitor of Microsoft for the long term.
So, in the end, the analysis of Linux vs. Microsoft is a null argument. Microsoft cannot compete with a product that is not a product, but a movement. Linux is fundamentally restructuring corporate policy towards software development. I just hope Linux's impact will survive the greed that will try to control it's nature while the Open-source movement grows up.
And I hope the 'Borg' in Microsoft can change it's ways so that it can allow another dominant player into the game without it having to feel the need to annihilate it.
-- The violin is playing in the background for those who are listening to it too.
