Re: <nettime> 'MS Linux'?

[Florian Cramer <paragram@gmx.net>]

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Am Tue, 23.Mar.1999 um 11:53:31 +0100 schrieb Frank Fremerey:

> > How Microsoft Plans to Drive Linus Torvalds Insane by Introducing
> > MS-Linux
> >=20
> > By Robert X. Cringely

Cringley's piece is, by the way, pure speculation and hype where it
discusses the alleged prospect of an "MS Linux".

> My prediction for this years CeBIT was that Microsoft will even do
> something much more intelligent: They will implement their whole set of
> APIs for Linux to get themselves into the position of selling
> "MS-enhanced Linux" (i.e. a commercial desktop for the free OS) to OEMs
> for the same price they sell the Windows-OEM-licence.

Why should they do that when the WINE project is already doing it (as Free
Software) since years, nowadays with the active help of Corel Inc.

> The approach will also give Linux a boost, because there will suddenly
> be millions of sofware applications running on it, that were only
> available for Windows before. The software developers will possibly only
> have to recompile and test their code. And there would certainly be the
> possibility to make Linux Binary compatible to Win32-code which would
> even save the effort of recompiling.

You can already do that with Wine and the Winelib. The WINE team and Corel
expect the software to have fully matured by the end of this year.

> again. Otherwise: Expect MS to reign Linux within 2 years.

I can see no whatsoever evidence of that. Even if Win32 should become the
standard API for commercial Linux/Unix productivity software, the existing
Windows desktop can in no way be used to manage Linux/Unix system services,
as Cringley suggests. (Isn't that the same Cringley who got into trouble
because he falsely claimed to have a Ph.D. from Stanford?)

But I would go with your statement if it were put into a metaphor. MS - or
rather - MS paradigms already _do_ reign the Linux desktop if you look at
both look'n'feel and internal architectures of KDE and Gnome, at such
popular window managers as fvwm95 and icewm, and at the majority of current
X11-based applications.

Florian

--=20
Florian Cramer, PGP public key ID 6440BA05, ICQ 33582613
Permutations/Permutationen - poetry automata from 330 A.D. to
present: <http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~cantsin/index.cgi>

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