Microsoft memo to staff: Clobber Linux

usa today ^ | 01/03/2002 | Byron Acohido

[AFreeBird]

People seem to forget that Microsoft marketted the first "third party" Unix, and did so back in the late '70s (or early '80s, I forget the exact date).

Mid 80's, and it was called Xenix, and given the underpowered hardware (IBM AT class - 6MHz 80286) it was running on at the time, I would have spun it off and out as well.

I recall using a product called MultiLink on a 4MHz 8086 (PC) that created virtual (DOS) machines in the available memory space of 640K and sliced up time on that processor. Amazingly it worked pretty well, but it was a dog.

Putting a mainframe class OS on an AT machine worked, but was even more of a dog. And since the code was licensed from Bell Labs, Bill didn't own it, couldn't buy it at the time and so he dropped it.

[SpaceBar]

"...there is no real BASIC environment..."

Try Tcl/Tk

"If Microsoft is so worried about Linux, why don't they just make their own distro?"

"Good point, why don't they?"

Because Microsoft's hands are tied with the GPL. If they modify the GPL'ed source code, they have to release the new source code with their modifications. Then anyone could take that source, modify it or not, and distribute a fork, and Microsoft is back to square one. Ya gotta love it. Nice to see Microsoft pay for the Vaseline for a change.

[elfman2]

Delphi's generally regarded as a much better programming environment than VB, more stable, extensible and almost as easy to learn. It has won some kind of users' choice award several years in a row.

Kylix is Delphi for Linux, and has been out for about a year. I haven't tried it, but it's claimed that with a little discipline, applications can be recompiled for either Windows or Linux.