Linux vs Windows - Conquering a Windows Based World

Covered at Computer World

“The PCs will be available in the U.S. after 4 p.m. Central Time from Dell’s Web site at http://www.dell.com/open. The laptop starts at US$599, while the two desktops, the Dimension E520 and XPS 410n, start from $599 and $849 each, respectively. A comparable XPS 410 with Windows Vista Premium costs $899.”

Novell’s Suse Linux has been selected by San Diego Unified School District as their standard platform to help children achieve academic success. Why was Suse Linux selected?

• Reliable
• Ease of use and administration
• Affordable

They are the second largest school district in California.

“This mobile computing program will help students develop the cognitive tools they will need to compete in the global economy,” said Dan Wolfson, program manager of Educational Technology for The Office of the Deputy Superintendent of San Diego City Schools, in a statement.”

Little damage seems to have been done by Microsoft’s latest threats to the open source community. Rather than creating fear in the population, Microsoft seems to have only succeeded in tarnishing their own image.

“But none of the half-dozen IT executives who were interviewed about Microsoft’s infringement assertions plan to change their open-source adoption strategies”

Redmayne-Bentley migrated to Linux last year for its mission critical business environment, to reduces processing time, support offsite disaster recovery, and upgrade business continuity,while at same time reducing software costs by half.

“Since making the move, the business has seen an 88 per cent reduction in overnight processing time - from 13 hours down to 1.5 hours - along with a tenfold increase in processing power.” 

NYSE is moving from mips mainframe to IBM p servers running AIX and x86 HP servers running Linux, in an apparent move that will cut costs in half.

“Francis Feldman, the vice president of the shared data center for Securities Industry Automation Corp. (SIAC), the NYSE’s technology arm, said the bottom line for the migration was the bottom line. He estimates the move will halve the cost of transactions, and though he wouldn’t detail how much that would mean on a yearly basis, he said it is “serious financial savings, very serious.”"

Not wasting time, Linus Torvalds responds to the latest “Fear Uncertainty and Doubt, Summer Tour of 2007″ from Microsoft.

“Microsoft should name the patents that it claims have been violated so the claims can be tested in court or so open-source developers can rewrite code to avoid the violation, Torvalds wrote”

Of course this will never happen since that would remove any fear and uncertainty. This saber rattling will go on for years.

Microsoft’s Bill Hilf says Linux doesn’t exist any more,  it is dead, and that there is not a free software movement anymore.

“Now that’s the kind of statement that vaporises Hilf’s credibility as some sort of Microsoft-Open Source mediator completely” 

Covered at Geekzone in New Zealand.

Microsoft is claiming open source software violates 235 of its patents, and that is the reason that open source software is  high quality.

“Microsoft claims that free software like Linux, which runs a big chunk of corporate America, violates 235 of its patents. It wants royalties from distributors and users. Users like you, maybe. Fortune’s Roger Parloff reports. “

Looking to decrease its  reliance on a single vendor, the Japanese government is looking at open source alternatives. Big name vendors including Oracle, NEC, IBM, Hitachi, and Dell are forming a consortium to help them do just that.  Linux is to be a priority for all procurements starting in July.

“The central government of Japan says it plans to spend around $1.25 trillion yen, or $10.4 billion, on IT over the next year. The government has said explicitly it wants to decrease its reliance on Microsoft as a server operating system platform.” 

Anyone think Microsoft is going to become an open source supporter in the near future?

Novell’s Suse Linux is on a role, and continues to pick up large customers for their Suse Linux Enterprise Support.  Companies include 1blu, Arsys, Fujitsu Services, Gordon Food Service, Gulfstream Aerospace, hi5 Networks, Host Europe, Nationwide, Prisacom, Reed Elsevier, Save Mart Supermarkets, and California’s Department of Fish and Game.

“In March, Novell announced that more than 40,000 certificates for three-year priority support subscriptions to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server have been activated under the collaboration agreement.”

So who is going to acquire Novell, IBM or Microsoft?