Posted on 08/15/2011 6:06:08 AM PDT by ShadowAce
It seems Matt Rosoff is having a little bit of snark over Microsoft apparently disregarding Linux as a threat to its desktop business.
The schadenfreude stems from a tweet from Wes Miller, Research VP at Directions on Microsoft, which points out that Microsoft's boilerplate from its last two annual SEC filings has some interesting revisions, as seen here.
Predictably, Rosoff pours salt on the wound by off-handedly cackling about Jim Zemlin's comments earlier this year that taking on Microsoft would be like "kicking a puppy."
To be fair, Rosoff did a little digging in the same SEC filings and discovered that Linux was still present in the documents, most notably as competition in the server and embedded spaces.
First off, let's be clear: in the passage Miller and Rosoff gleefully cite, Google is still mentioned as competition on the desktop. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Google's desktop offering ChromeOS actually Linux?
Why yes, yes it is.
So, while Microsoft seems to be sweeping the Linux problem under the rug, anyone with half a brain can see that Linux is still a threat here, if not in actual name.
I would be dishonest if I were to suggest that at this time ChromeOS has significant market share against Windows. Frankly, no operating system does. But Linux is still in Microsoft's radar, never fear.
And I wonder what Microsoft's mobile section of its SEC filings will say in the face of yesterday's news that Windows Phone 7 2Q sales are so bad they've slipped below that of Samsung's in-house platform Bada? Bada, ladies and gentlemen, Bada is selling better at 1.9 percent than Windows Phone 7's 1.6 percent, with Android sitting on top for the same quarter at 43.4 percent.
Gee, that's awfully bad news, considering that "IBM engineer Mark Dean, who was on the team that built the first IBM PC, says the PC era is basically over." I would point these stories out to Rosoff, but it seems he actually wrote the stories to which I just linked.
Let me see if I have got this straight: Linux, according to Microsoft, has lost on the desktop, even though one of its cited competitors uses Linux. Meanwhile, a lot of smart people (besides just Dean) are pointing at mobile (tablets and smartphones) as the Next Platform, and right now Windows' mobile offering can't get mobile traction to save its life, while a Linux-based OS is kicking butt and taking names on smartphones and isn't doing too bad on tablets.
Boy, I'm so glad Rosoff is here to point such things out to me. Otherwise I might actually be worried.
“Linux starts with the letter L.
Loser starts with the letter L.
COINCIDENCE?????????????”
Do you realize that YOUR NAME starts with the letter L?
My my my...
“Gates and Windows are something one goes through to get to a desired location.”
Gates and windows can limit people’s freedom.
Untrue. It was a pun. You shoulda seen the other guy. Besides, I was never convicted. The pressure dropped too quickly. That was why I won the 100 year war. It was the lemon juice, that's what did it. The dog blinded me.
Sorry—I’m speaking from first-hand knowledge and experience.So am I :-)
There was a sale at K-Mart.
I like to be fashionable.
I was hijacked.
I didn’t think you cared.
My head hurts.
The Devil made me late.
It was against my religion.
I was stuck in traffic all day.
"It wasn't my fault!!"
I actually installed and configured the clustered computers running linux at those places. None of them were using Windows for their main work.
My kids are stuck in the door. I have to pick up my car at the shop. My dog has a rash all over. My truss snapped. I got my fingers stuck together with Krazy Glue.
followed by a wikipedia pointer to a Commodore 64 page. Mumble. I would direct you to:
http://www.woodward.org/mps/
which documents how you can install an emulator for a REAL computer and operating system in rather wide use during the Commodore age, the Xerox D-machines, Mesa language and the Co-Pilot debugger. Have big fun. It's still pretty awesome stuff. Mesa compares quite favorably to Java. You can come to your own conclusions about the D-Machine. Compare closely Grasshoppah, the Dragon and the SPARC.
I visit the CeBit every year, checking out each and every booth in the enterprise software halls. It is mostly Windows. Linux is the total exception. To think that all these companies are only pretending to sell Windows software, and their customers are only pretending to be interested, while they are really running all Linux software in their companies, is absurd.
Thank you both for the only OS flame-war I’ve ever actually enjoyed!
I can make a good dose of clap seem fun.
Most enterprises use both Linux and Windows Server.
I can make a good dose of clap seem fun.
I can make a good dose of clap seem fun.
You actually think that visiting CeBit each year trumps actual on-site work and conversation?
You really think that nobody has a Windows Server installation running SQL Server? Or Oracle? Or Exchange? Or Sharepoint? Or any of the usual enterprise software systems?
All of those products are desktop support systems (with the exception of Oracle). Those are not what I was talking about. I was talking about their real work--the reason they are in business in the first place.
Research, analysis, and crunching numbers. Heck--LHC@Home doesn't even offer a Windows client for those who wish to participate.
Lazmataz starts with an L.... Hmmm..... I see what you mean. ;-/
They’re right. Without the primary driving company there’s nothing to push users to Linux, people who go to Linux have to find it for themselves, which just never drives a big market. While dribs and drabs of people decide to experiment with Linux Windows is appearing on the vast majority of new computers sold, even if the user then turns around and overwrites it with Linux MS already got their money. MS has been ignoring Linux for 15 years and Linux still only has 2% of the market:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems
I mean really, Vista has 7 times the usage and everybody hates Vista.
I work on enterprise communication software that’s found in most fortune 500 companies (at 1 point at least 1 of our products was in every fortune 500 company, but we sold some stuff off and lost about 50 of them) and we’re entirely Windows, server side and client, same with our biggest competition too. Now they might have their primary work servers non-Windows. But they’ve got at least one significant Windows domain that runs us, probably their Exchange server (love it or hate it Exchange owns the corporate e-mail market), and a handful of other pieces of core software.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.