Microsoft has the fear?

Looks like Microsoft is finally acknowledging Unix based OSes as a desktop competitor. On a personal note my big issues with Vista and Windows 7 have been the fact that I don't like relearning how to do simple stuff all over again and the hardware requirements. Those are my main issues with them anyways.

Microsoft Acknowledges Linux Threat to Windows Client

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Comments

dynamik

I saw this story on Digg yesterday. I thought one commenter made a good observation and said that they may likely be saying this simply to try to avoid looking like a monopoly.

GAngel

About as much threat as apple.

Slowhand

dynamik wrote: »

I saw this story on Digg yesterday. I thought one commenter made a good observation and said that they may likely be saying this simply to try to avoid looking like a monopoly.

"Oh noes, teh Linux is takin' over! We're DOOOOOOOOOOOMED!!! (Now where's my bailout check?)" - Steve Ballmer

wastedtime

They may do it to keep from looking like a monopoly, although they seem to be losing more and more market share in different areas. Past few years there seems to be more competition with Microsoft. You have Firefox with browsers, Linux getting shipped on a lot of netbooks, not to mention more manufacturers are offering it as a option for there desktops, and Microsoft all but officially declaring war on Google. I think Microsoft has been feeling the heat the past few years, especially when you add on the current economic situation.

EDIT:Also I guess before this gets out of hand I did not intend on this being a Microsoft Verse "insert name here" thread. I am just making light of the fact that Microsoft is having more competition lately then past years.

Pash

For general desktop usage linux is a lot better than it used to be for sure. I dual boot kubuntu (ubuntu with kde 4) and windows 7 at home at the moment.

But I just don't see linux grabing a significant desktop share still, I mean its just not friendly enough to the average user. Vista and 7 are even easier to setup at the GUI install screens.

UnixGuy

Cool

wd40

Microsoft is fighting Back. "I mean Google"

Microsoft, Yahoo! Change Search Landscape: Global Deal Creates Better Choice for Consumers and Advertisers

I do not remember anyone posting about this here ..

darkerosxx

Embrace, extend, extinguish

HeroPsycho

There maybe serious competition against Microsoft in the desktop market OS once we do most everything in the cloud. Because at that point, as long as you have an OS with a compatible browser, and Firefox tends to be very good with that, why do you need Windows? Linux would do the job and would be cheaper.

Slowhand

wastedtime wrote: »

Past few years there seems to be more competition with Microsoft. You have Firefox with browsers, Linux getting shipped on a lot of netbooks, not to mention more manufacturers are offering it as a option for there desktops,

That's usually how it works, and how it was for Microsoft in the beginning - screwing IBM out of a lucrative monopoly by licensing DOS to them - and it's been the same for Red Hat, for example. Red Hat got a HUGE boost by getting in bed with IBM and pumping out servers in the early 2000's, (remember the "Peace, Love, & Linux" sidewalk-sprays all over the place?) Microsoft has, and probably will have for some time, an obscene share of the desktop OS market, but it's times like the ones we're in now that could see a little kink in the armor that competitors could use to begin chipping away at Windows.

My advice to a Linux company/organization that wants to get a foot in the door and sell home PCs to the general public down the line: start nailing down the workplace. Get a huge corporation or two to switch over to using your OS on their workstations. After a few years, all those employees will be so used to using your version of Linux they won't be scared to bring it home with them and have it run on their home machines. Again, follow in Microsoft's footsteps in terms of marketing and business-maneuvering, that's how they got to be the biggest player in the market to begin with. It takes small steps in the here and now, and big planning in the long-term, along with a whole lot of patience.

UnixGuy

I think the real competition in desktop is going between Microsoft and Apple...these MacBooks sell like cake....But Linux...hmmm, I think it's better on the server side...but who knows...anything can happen