Microsoft Corp., whose Windows software is battling Linux programs
for corporate customers, will make it easier for companies to use
both.
Microsoft is working with Linux software maker XenSource Inc. to make
sure files created on Windows machines can be used with Linux, Bill
Hilf, Microsoft's general manager of platform strategy, said
Wednesday. Hilf described the collaboration in Microsoft's first-ever
keynote address at the LinuxWorld conference in Boston yesterday.
The efforts mark a thawing between Microsoft, the world's largest
software maker, and the companies and developers that back the free
Linux operating system.
Windows in 2005 became the top server operating system by revenue,
accounting for $17.7 billion in sales, according to Framingham-based
technology market researcher IDC. Linux, however, is coming on. With
$5.7 billion in sales, Linux gained 23 percent in 2005, compared with
11 percent for Windows.
Also yesterday Microsoft said it would will sell copies of its
Windows operating system to Chinese personal computer makers TCL
Group and Tsinghua Tongfang Co., in deals that promote the paid use
of software in China.
The deals are a victory for Microsoft in fighting piracy in China,
the number two PC market in the world. Microsoft has been lobbying
the Chinese government to crack down on software theft and needs more
sales there to counter slower growth in the United States and Western
Europe.
By Bloomberg News | April 7, 2006
To unsubscribe send a blank mail to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bdlug/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
