John Dvorak: Prelude to MS-Linux-- Commentary: Microsoft moves to counter Windows threat

marketwatch ^ | 3:45 PM ET Nov. 17, 2004 | John C. Dvorak

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

BERKELEY, Calif. (CBS.MW) -- Microsoft just acquired a stake in Vintela, a software tool company that allows for the integration of mixed environments, specifically Unix, Linux, Windows and the Mac with special attention paid to Java.

Last year Microsoft (MSFT:

news, chart, profile) bought Connectix, a company that made what some term a hypervisor -- system software that allows multiple operating systems to be coordinated within one system.

When these two purchases are analyzed along with other recent Microsoft actions, you have to conclude that it is about to bring out a version of Linux under its own brand name. I suspect it will simply be termed Microsoft Linux or MS-Linux.

Linux is the free operating system that potentially poses the greatest threat to Microsoft Window's hegemony.

The recent moves also help explain an odd lawsuit which was settled last year over the Lindows trademark. This suit, in which I testified as a pro bono expert witness on behalf of the then beleaguered Lindows Inc., was baffling and at the time seemed like harassment more than anything else. The lawyers were baffled by it and so was I since the suit actually threatened the Windows trademark itself.

It was eventually settled out of court and Microsoft paid Lindows to change its name. The case was about "confusion" in the market.

Microsoft claimed that the public would somehow equate the name Lindows with a Microsoft product. If Microsoft indeed planned to bring out a version of Linux this now makes sense. Lindows is now known as Linspire.

There are rumors in the industry that Microsoft has been itching to move its operating system upstream to bigger mainframe class machines and we can expect some announcements in the months ahead. But its biggest problem is still security. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has said that security, which is at the top of the Microsoft to-do list, is expected to be off the list within the next year or two. This is not really possible with the "never-ending patches" approach.. But it is possible if Microsoft creates a virtual firewall within the system that runs on another operating system -- Linux.

It's well known in the business that a Linux-based computer standing guard as a firewall in front of a Microsoft Windows network is one of the most secure protection schemes being used today. By using a hypervisor and other tools Microsoft can create a similar model within a single machine and fix most of the security problems associated with Windows while allowing users to maintain their Windows networks and fearlessly run their Windows applications. With such a design users can also run Linux applications and Microsoft can create systems that are similar to the IBM Linux offerings which Microsoft has been viewing as a threat to its core business and a barrier to its entry into the world of so-called "on demand" applications.

In particular this will target the IBM "e-Business On Demand" initiative and the IBM WebSphere application server market. For a briefing on this you can read the IBM WebSphere webpage here.

Microsoft now has all the pieces it needs to steal this business away from IBM (IBM: news, chart, profile). In the process of developing a mainframe hybrid server it can produce an MS-Linux with the kind of service and support people seem to want from a software provider, thus usurping the entire Linux movement and derailing any chance Linux will ever make it to the desktop unless it's branded by Microsoft.

I suspect that Microsoft has been working with attorneys to see how far it can go to make some aspect of MS-Linux proprietary or somehow impossible to pass around free.

Its backup plan would be to possibly use Solaris as the firewall operating system and its new relationship with Sun (SUNW: news, chart, profile) indicates this possibility too. Either way, Microsoft is thinking big.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

fyi

[JSteff]

"with the kind of service and support people seem to want from a software provider,"

So I guess that would be the first OS they gave service and support to.

[ShadowAce]

There have been rumors and jokes about this for quite a while. I would be very surprised to see anything like a "MS-Linux."

However, I could see a version of Windows based on BSD, much like the Mac OS.

[twntaipan]

It is interesting that Solaris is now available free for use on x86 hardware. I wonder if Micro$oft is going to march down the Linux path.

[js1138]

From a marketing standpoint, Windows is just a user interface, and MS is a marketing company. If Windows needs UNIX under the hood, it will eventually be there.

[N3WBI3]

Yes it will eventually get laid down on a solid base, but I doubt it will be Linux. If MS makes to move to *nix it will most likely be BSD, they already have used BSD components in their existing software..