Messages in this thread | | | From | "Henning P. Schmiedehausen" <> | Subject | Re: The latest Microsoft FUD. This time from BillG, himself. | Date | Thu, 21 Jun 2001 08:37:07 +0000 (UTC) |
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Larry McVoy <lm@bitmover.com> writes:
>What would be wrong with Microsoft/Linux? It would be:
Nothing, but...
> a) the Linux kernel > b) the Microsoft API ported to X > c) Microsoft apps > d) Linux apps
>Since Microsoft is all about making money, it doesn't matter if they >charge for the dll's or the OS, either one is fine, you can't run Word >without them. If you don't need the Microsoft apps, you could strip
... I would bet, they will try to give you a binary-only kernel module that must be loaded or else the M$ Word .NET for Linux will not run. Because they can not license check or something...
>For the last 10 years, Unix has gotten the OS right and the apps wrong >and Microsoft has gotten the apps right and the OS wrong. Seems like >there is potential for a win-win.
3:1 that M$ thinks along the same ways. The (now probably called off) split-up of M$ into an OS and an applications company would've accelerated this move very much.
It's BTW, what I tell people around me since four years on a more or less regular base... :-) (check older mails, you'll see that I got lots of heat for thinking so).
I, personally, would love to see Office, Outlook and Quicken for Linux. No, not clones. The real thing. Those are about the only reasons I have to keep a blown up typewriter (aka NT Server) as a pet. And getting these applications as competition, it would boost the development and quality (!) of the free alternatives as well. I'd love to see IE5.5 for Linux, too.
Devils' advocate position: If Linux would not be under GPL but under BSD license, M$ may have already done so. But consider them porting one of their monster applications and release it just to find out that they've linked to GNU readline somewhere because of an QM oversight.
I'd guess, to them, the risk of having their core code base (their source of revenue) "infected by the GNU virus" is just too high.
Hmmm. After all, they're already using FreeBSD. Maybe they will release "Windows for FreeBSD" with Office. Now that would be an interesting impact on Linux (I would be over there in seconds =:-) )
Regards Henning
-- Dipl.-Inf. (Univ.) Henning P. Schmiedehausen -- Geschaeftsfuehrer INTERMETA - Gesellschaft fuer Mehrwertdienste mbH hps@intermeta.de
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