The mythology and history tell us of great struggles between sworn enemies. David and Goliath, Caesar and Brutus, Robespierre and Louis XVI are only a few. But for some years now in addition to this huge list we have two big names in the information technology! The multinational Microsoft and the GNU/Linux open source operating system. The struggles between the two never ends!
While Microsoft is trying by all means to keep under its control the market of the desktop, Linux itself in recent years is reaching incredibly important goals, mostly on the servers and embedded systems (Android ?). Despite the low blows of Microsoft, we can just take a look at the mythological UEFI chips, Linux does not give up though. Indeed, it always win a larger slice of users thanks to its distributions. Each of which, of course, choose a different path.
Today I’ve introduced this hot and contested topic primarily for a reason. Something that will appeal to many of you. Not so much for the news itself, but for what this represents. For what this choice means for all of us, followers of the philosophy of the Open Source.
We are talking about the fact that, very recently, Microsoft has chosen to make available some of the most successful Linux distributions on their virtual machines that can be generated with Windows Azure . We’re talking about openSUSE 12.1, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11, Ubuntu 12.04 and CentOS 6.2. These Linux distributions are in addition to all versions of Windows Server available. This is just one of the new update of Azure. Others are the upgrading of some libraries and additional support for Windows Server. But are not the upgrades in itself that I want you to notice. Rather, I want you to notice the step that Redmond had to do. A step that undoubtedly costs a lot to them, but seen that due to the increased demand from Linux users has been an inevitable thing to do for Microsoft.
Enough to tell! Let ‘s reflect on all this … First of all, but what does this choice say about the house leader of the Desktop OS? I am sure many of you will think differently. But I want to say mine. The humble opinion of a person that works in the world of computers for some years. This choice is certainly not made for the benefit of the Open Source. Undoubtedly, this choice was dictated by economic reasons and user requests. But what are the consequences of this choice? They can be so many!
One of the many is undoubtedly at the detriment of Microsoft. This is because if a person can finally test an Ubuntu 12.04 on Azure and realizes that it is actually better than a complex and expensive Windows Server, what’s the future of Azure and all Windows servers? You can imagine! You may even think that the exact opposite can happen, a Linux user that start to use Azure because now it supports Linux Distributions, and ends using only Microsoft products. But I am sure that what will happen more is probably the first case.
What do you think? Do not you agree with me?
We all know the superiority of Linux distributions in many areas, and this can be a good way to bring on the Free side some Windows Users !
