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.
You actually think that visiting CeBit each year trumps actual on-site work and conversation?Well, the reason I visit the CeBIT each year is, of course, that I work in the field, too ;-) Visiting CeBIT is for getting an impression of the big picture, and new developments. And selling stuff.
Research, analysis, and crunching numbers.Well, ok, if clusters for number crunching is all we’re talking about, then yes: It is well known that Linux clusters are the best. But the percentage of companies whose business revolves around a big cluster computer, or who even own one, is rather small I would say. Most companies biggest servers are their databases and/or document management systems. I would call those “servers,” not “desktop extensions.” The opposite of “client” is still “server,” not “cluster.” ;-) The software I personally develop typically runs in production environments on a park of dozens of Windows Server installations. Although it is a distributed system, it certainly isn’t a “cluster,” either.
Last June, I pulled out an old desktop and experimented with a number of these Linux distros -- Fedora, Ubuntu, Linux Mint. I finally decided upon PCLinuxOS.
I am no computer geek by any means (I don't even know how to write a script), and yet I have not turned on my XP machine for over seven weeks -- *except* for when I wanted to sync my IPOD or use Quicken.
OK--I can give ya that one. :)
I guess we're coming at this from two different viewpoints. With my background in clustering, I tend to view servers as something other than a dedicated Office appliance.
Heck, I've built dynamically heterogeneous clusters--where the head node determines whether a particular server needs to run windows or linux for a particular job, and reinstalls the OS on the fly. I'm just not used to thinking about servers when they are in the office environment.
You said "yet"... I would say "ever". Bookkeeping, spreadsheets, project management, graphics/video editing, programming, serious authorship - All of these require more real estate than a device can offer, or will ever offer, at least in the current form factors. For all the hype, most folks are still using handhelds as a glorified PIM (and that's really all it is). Folks seem to forget that computers do more than browsing the internet, e-mail, and appointments...
As far as tablets, we'll have to wait and see. They're still a niche product.
True. but without a real KB, same as any other handheld - 'Tablet' used to be a laptop with a turn-around, touch capable monitor - and even those have been unsuccessful, even with the capability of transforming into a laptop. So why would a tablet without that capability do better?
I think the device with legs is the netbook. Too small to be comfortable on, to be sure, but capable of doing anything a laptop can do. My tablet is awkward to handle, and too big to store easily on my person. I much prefer the netbook as a portable device - the clam shell design not only protects it, but makes it smaller for storage, and easier to handle in operation (just hook a thumb in the corner for a good grasp). And it has a KEYBOARD.
Laz ends with 'z' and zero, a common reference to um, Zero, starts with 'z'. Ergo, you're Zero. ;-) Sorry, that was hitting below the belt but you're cracking me up and I had to say something!
don’t dispute that.
the bottom line is that linux is a very minor player in the desktop market for the end user.
the computer joe schmoe buys in the store has windows, perhaps a apple os if they go to an apple store. There is no “linux department”
Hey, did you know that absolutely everyone who develops, uses C#.NET against a SQL back end?
There are no exceptions.
Quite a few people SQL when they C # back end.
No, not even one.
Haven't you been logically bested enough today???
Several people have already noticed you fell into my well-laid trap equating you with Linux through your name.
I just got burned with the .NET Oracle driver, we used in our C# ASP.NET apps. Turns out, the .NET Oracle driver, automatically turned the user id and passwords into Upper Case when passing them to Oracle, since in earlier versions of Oracle, they were case-insensitive. Well they upgraded to Oracle 11, which does make user ids and passwords case sensitive, and suddenly everything broke.
YIKES! Can you just use a generic ODBC driver? That would give you the password casing you need. Of course it would be slower, being ODBC, you couldn’t count on the Oracle optimization..... Or are you locked into some of the Oracle functionality in your current driver?
Well played. I have lost the entire argument. I bow to the master.
We’re pretty much locked in. We got it working eventually, but it was kind of a pain because the drivers are part of the Assembly, and you have to deal with the GAC, and all that wonderful stuff.
GAC’s not too bad if you work with it enough. What was the solution? Did I see something about a flag allowing upper/lower passwords, or did they send out an update, or... what was your solution?
Hey, did you know that absolutely everyone who develops, uses C#.NET against a SQL back end?I would hit it!
It all depends on what you're using a computer for. I have a laptop that is only used for browsing and some gaming. Fifteen minutes from inserting the disk to begin installation of PCLInuxOS to the desktop. Now if you're using the computer for windows based software, yeah. you might take hours.
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