p2pnet.net News:- "Linux creates a cloud of uncertainty over Microsoft. Every time Red Hat reports earnings, Microsoft seems to take a hit," says Goldman Sachs software analyst Richard Sherlund.

The quotes comes in a Forbes story in MSNBC here, which kicks off with:

"Microsoft executive Martin Taylor’s schedule is packed with meetings like the one in June when he met with representatives from French drugmaker Aventis in his Redmond, Wash. office. Aventis has tied together groups of computers running not Microsoft’s operating system but the freely available Linux. These high-performance clusters can analyze proteins at blazing speeds. ‘That’s great for Linux,’ Taylor said cheerily, at the time.

"That same week – by coincidence, the company says – Microsoft announced plans for a new version of Windows software to handle exactly the kind of high-performance computing Aventis had set up. Says Taylor now, ‘I’ll knock on their door in a few months so they can check out our stuff’."

The report says Taylor is Microsoft’s top Linux strategist and it goes on:

"Entrepreneurs in the industry smile at the mention of his name because they know, for one thing, that Taylor is a straight-up, nice guy, but also that his real job is to better understand Linux so Microsoft can do a better job of crushing it.

"In 2001 Microsoft Chief Steve Ballmer likened Linux to ‘cancer.’ Now, says Taylor, "Linux is going to be around forever. We’ve got to understand it."

MSNBC which, not at all incidentally given the content of the Forbes report, is a Microsoft / NBC joint venture, also says Microsoft has gone through a "wrenching transformation from a combative bully to a mature corporate citizen".

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 10th, 2004 at 4:12 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

HOME

Viewed 1951 times