Microsoft beats Linux in trio of govt contracts (Europe )

Lycos Financial - Reuters Financial | 1 Jul 2003, 1:06pm ET | Bernhard Warner

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

LONDON, July 1 (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) announced a trio of European government contract wins on Tuesday, the latest salvo in the growing turf battle between the software giant and vendors of the upstart Linux software.

The U.S. software giant would not disclose financial terms of the deals, which it said it won after competing head-to-head for the business with various Linux vendors.

Microsoft said it would deploy its signature Windows server and desktop software on thousands of computers for the city governments in Frankfurt, the Latvian capital of Riga and Turku in Finland.

For the past year, an intense battle has been raging across Europe as more corporations and government agencies turn to the open-source Linux software to run their desktop and network computer systems.

The biggest blow to Microsoft came in May when Germany's SuSE landed a lucrative contract to switch more than 14,000 Windows desktop PCs to Linux for the city government of Munich.

OUTFLANKED IN PR WAR

Despite having a commanding lead in the European corporate desktop market, Microsoft had begun to lose momentum in the PR war to the open-source technology.

"Now we see the importance in this new world with the OSS Linux phenomenon that we have to readdress the value of our offering," Wilfried Grommen, general manager for Microsoft business strategies for Microsoft European, Middle East and Africa, told Reuters on Tuesday.

"The world is not only OSS Linux. Maybe we have to put that message straight," he added. In its announcement on Tuesday, Microsoft highlighted that it won the business against Linux.

"It's very important for Microsoft to very publicly respond to these challenges," said Gary Barnett, an analyst with London-based technology consultancy Ovum. "This is clearly a counter-balance to all the pro-Linux noise."

Microsoft has invested heavily to fight off Linux, which threatens to eat into its most profitable business.

Barnett said Microsoft Windows runs over ninety percent of all corporate and government desktop computers in Europe, but said the server market was much more competitive with Linux coming out of nowhere in the past year to challenge Windows NT and the more established software system, Unix.

Longtime Unix vendors such as International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) have jumped into the Linux market in recent years to address this emerging market.

Linux, which is on an estimated 15 percent of all computers sold in Western Europe, is considered Microsoft's only true rival.

Microsoft has gone on the offensive, pushing the notion that Windows is as reliable as any product on the market and that security is the new cornerstone of its business.

In doing so, it has sought to silence the open-source community that has made big inroads with firms by saying Linux is reliable, more secure and cheaper to maintain.

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[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

OFFICIAL BUMP(TOPIC)LIST

[Incorrigible]

Mmmmmmm stuffed penguin. Should be tasty!

[Nick Danger]

There are some interesting news stories out there involving the computer industry, and even though most of the threads about them eventually turn into useless food fights, there is often some intelligent commentary at the front end of them.

"XYZ Corp announces that it sold something" press releases are a dime a dozen though, and it's probably a bad idea to start a contest to see whether the proponents of Fords, Chevys, or Dodges can find the most press releases to start threads with. That ways lies Jim banishing the whole category to one of those caves he has in the back where one-issue ax-grinders can have their food fights away from the news forum.

Something like this is probably worth tossing as a spear in a thread where spears are already flying, but I see nothing but trouble in starting a Guaranteed Food Fight Thread every time the cash register dings for Ford or Chevy.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

OK!

What you say makes sense!

[Golden Eagle]

I see nothing but trouble in starting a Guaranteed Food Fight Thread every time the cash register dings for Ford or Chevy.

Cash registers don't ding much for Linux, Danger, at least not here back in the US.

Before you go off talking about how much IBM has sold Red Hat, that's certainly less than 50% of all Linux out there, plus super IBM server costs with Red Hat don't offer much value over their US software counterparts (get other IBM o/s's or M$ for ~10% difference paid back to your country).

The linux tide appears to have already peaked, now we are seeing industry articles on top of one another pointing to a fundamental flaw in GPL, and corporate adoptions down. This article is only further proof.

Again before you linux shills go accuse me of being a microsoftie, I am not, I am American, and support any American product over your foriegn linux kernel and it's network of hackers. You attack me, you are only attacking my admitted American bias, obviously as a result of your own Anti-American bias. Either that, or your own lack of ability to pay for products you wish to use.

[Liberal Classic]

The linux tide appears to have already peaked, now we are seeing industry articles on top of one another pointing to a fundamental flaw in GPL, and corporate adoptions down.

I don't pretend to see the future, and the growth of the computer industy as a whole has taken a dip lately.

I am American, and support any American product over your foriegn linux kernel and it's network of hackers.

Good grief. Linux is hardly anti-American. Lots of Americans have worked on it, and Torvalds and his wife and daughter live in Silicon Valley for goodness sake. Other notable Linux developers include Eric Allman (sendmail), Alan Cox (3Com but ok he's British), Brian Behlendorf (O'Reilly), Jon Hall (DEC), Larry Miller (SGI and Sun), Tim O'Reilly, Jon Prial (IBM), Larry Wall (perl) and Bob Young (Red Hat). Stallman's a radical but hey, he's Californian. Linux wouldn't be where it is today if it weren't for American contributions to it. It's pretty much a Euro-American effort, with smaller bit from Australia and Mexico. Your rather alarmist and amusing language describing Linux as written by "foreign hackers" just doesn't wash. LOL.

It's just software, and as such it is apolitical. It all depends on how it is put to use.

[Golden Eagle]

Linux wouldn't be where it is today if it weren't for American contributions to it.

Niether would Kazaa...

"Linux" is copyrighted to one guy from Finland. It is a cheap rip off of Unix, right down to the exact command syntax. Now it may even have stolen US trade secrets in it. You can keep supporting it as it continues to threaten the US software industry, but I won't.

[Liberal Classic]

It is a cheap rip off of Unix...

It's a UNIX clone, like the Compaq was a clone of the IBM PC.

[Golden Eagle]

Major difference. Compaq is a US company, that IBM never sued. "Linux" is a smoke and mirrors sham, that is starting to be exposed despite the beliefs of it's 'commnunity' that it can't be legally liable for anything.

[Nick Danger]

You dirty rat

I am shocked, I say shocked, to be standing here covered in pizza and eggs. That someone would come in here and start throwing food is just the last thing I ever expected.

Time for a shower. I doubt that anything series is going to happen here.

[Golden Eagle]

I am shocked, I say shocked, to be standing here covered in pizza and eggs.

LMAO. Sorry Nick, I tend to get a little aggitated when talking about the possible destruction of the US software market, especially by what I see is a bunch of commies!

[Question_Assumptions]

Again before you linux shills go accuse me of being a microsoftie, I am not, I am American, and support any American product over your foriegn linux kernel and it's network of hackers.

I think the idea of supporting "any American product" regardless of quality leads to bad quality and consumer abuse. Having been the owner of a late 1970s American car, I can only say that I'm happy that Americans started to buy Japanese and other foreign cars which finally sent a message to the US auto makers that quality does matter. When Microsoft used to have to compete for market share, people used to talk about how cheap their products were. With near-monopoly status, you don't hear that any more. Competition is good. And if Linux helps drive Microsoft to produce better products, then everyone wins.

You attack me, you are only attacking my admitted American bias, obviously as a result of your own Anti-American bias.

Ah, the old "patriot card". I suppose "liberty" doesn't have a place in that "buy Microsoft or else you hate America" fantasyland you inhabit. You seem to see an inherent conflict between exercising one's liberty to buy the best product and being patriotic. What amazes me is that the idea that one is obliged to buy American regardless of quality and cost is not that far from the Left's idea that your money belongs to everyone collectively and you shouldn't be free to decide where to spend it.

Either that, or your own lack of ability to pay for products you wish to use.

By the way, I have multiple licensed copies of MS Office on my home computers, including one copy running on Windows and two copies running on Macs. Heck, I even have a few licenses that I'm not using and aren't part of an upgrade path. A coworker laughed at me when I told him that I wanted MS Office SB on a Windows laptop if I bought one because I was actually going to pay for the license. Out of curiosity, do you pay for a license for every copy of Microsoft's software you've installed, even when you've installed something on multiple machines?

I have no problem in paying Microsoft for their products when they compete well on quality and price. I simply wish to have the freedom to use the best product for my purposes with respect to quality and price. As for operating systems, I wish not to support a Microsoft's attempts to actively control and monopolize the standards for a vital sector of the economy. We already have one government that forces me to pay them without a choice and I don't need a second one in Microsoft.

[Question_Assumptions]

"Linux" is copyrighted to one guy from Finland.

...that now lives in the United States.

It is a cheap rip off of Unix, right down to the exact command syntax.

It is a very good clone of Unix and the similarities are intentional. Of course I suppose the fact that Microsoft's first DOS was a similar "rip off" of CP/M doesn't bother you at all, though, right?

Now it may even have stolen US trade secrets in it.

And it may not. I guess there isn't any presumption of innocense in your America, either.

You can keep supporting it as it continues to threaten the US software industry, but I won't.

And how, exactly will Linux "threaten the US software industry" unless you believe that (A) Microsoft is the sum total of "the US software industry", (B) that the demise near demise of Lotus, WordPerfect, Novel, and other software vendors at the hands of Microsoft had no impact on "the US software industry", and (C) that the added cost of using Microsoft products does not increase the cost of doing business for every other company and industry that makes up the US economy, expecially in light of Microsoft's increasing licensing fees, now that it has little competition on the desktop.

"The US software industry" needs a reliable platform upon which to build it's software, not a single non-choice that they have to pay a Microsoft-tax on for the priviledge of using. If a company choses to buy Microsoft products because they have the best quality or value, as I have done with MS Office on my Macintoshes, that's great. Note that if Microsoft were to port Office to Linux, they'd probably sell quite a few copies. I've heard that their Macintosh sales are very profitable.

[Question_Assumptions]

Major difference. Compaq is a US company, that IBM never sued.

Not true. IBM did sue in IBM v. Compaq. The courts simply found in Compaq's favor.

"Linux" is a smoke and mirrors sham, that is starting to be exposed despite the beliefs of it's 'commnunity' that it can't be legally liable for anything.

The only sham here is your statements concerning Linux. It helps to know what you are talking about before making claims in public.

[Question_Assumptions]

LMAO. Sorry Nick, I tend to get a little aggitated when talking about the possible destruction of the US software market, especially by what I see is a bunch of commies!

There are certainly commies in the open source movement and Linus Torvald's father was most certaily a die-hard commie. But if the commies want to donate their time to benefit you, what's the problem? Would you turn down $100 if a commie earned it and decided to give it to you for free?

As for "the possible destruction of the US software market", an operating system is not the sum total of the US software market, nor does open source software prevent a commercial company from competing against open source efforts (you'll notice, for example, that Oracle sells their database products for Linux). It is because the Internet is based on open standards such as TCP/IP, SMTP, FTP, etc. that Microsoft was able to adapt to the Internet (which it didn't at first because it wanted control -- remember having to use Trumpet WinSock under Windows 3.1?) And I own Macs, for example, exactly because they give me access to commercial software (which I pay for) that is superior to the open source efforts out there. Of course the Mac OS is built on top of an open BSD kernel but don't let me confuse you with the mingling of commercial and free software.

If you are really worried about the US software industry, you might want to look at Microsoft, Oracle, and others starting to outsource their development to India and China. Frankly, I'm more worried about the Chinese commies than an altruistic lad from Finland. The Chinese have nukes.

[Incorrigible]

C'mon Q/A.  Don't let those commies running Piscataway infiltrate your thinking!   :-)

[Incorrigible]

What need have we for more evidence?

[ken in texas]

It is a cheap rip off of Unix, right down to the exact command syntax.

So... HP-UX, Solaris, AIX, Dynix-PTX, etc. are all cheap rip offs too? The beauty of the Unix environment is that the interfaces and system calls are fully documented; how you handle them on the inside is up to you if you want to write your own. Some people started with the licensed code from AT&T, others decided to write their own (SCO's lawsuit not withstanding.)

Any system that conforms to the documented interfaces correctly can be certified as "Unix" compliant. That permits stuff like vi, sed, grep, awk, ksh, and others, to work the same way on all of them.

I suppose you consider all of the GNU programs to be a rip off too.