John Wilson wrote:
On November 13, 2003 12:53 pm, Kaj Haulrich wrote:
Quote from "The Globe and Mail" about the Novell takeover of
S.u.S.E. :
<quote>
There could also be some other moves. Other giants might be thinking
Linux too. The financially troubled Mandrake Linux is ripe for
plucking, especially by a company such as Hewlett-Packard Co.,
which a few weeks ago delayed release of its next version of HP-UX,
a version of UNIX, by as much as a year. And then there's Xandros
Linux, which just yesterday released a new version, this one
offering compatibility with Microsoft Windows programs, including
MS Office and MS networks.
By the time the dust settles, the Linux shocks will emerge as the
most serious challenge Microsoft has ever faced.
The earth clearly hasn't finished moving.
</quote>
Kaj Haulrich.
Provided that the bulk of the management, developers and community remains in
place and provided that the desktop focus stays I don't see a problem with
this. That said, I'm doubtful it will happen. Though, of course, I thought
the same thing about HP snapping up that loser Compaq.
In many ways it does make sense. IBM, after being snake bit by M$, isn't
putting it's eggs in one basket. Hence the bankrolling of RedHat and the
kinda backdoor financing of Novell's pick on SuSE. HP would, then, seem
logical.
If such a thing comes to pass there would be reason for M$ to be worried. Two
of it's main FUD attacks will be gone. One that there is no support from a
major vendor and the second that open source is designed to drive profit
driven companies out of business.
The other thing is the sense of inevitability as Linux moves into the server
and corporate mainstream. SuSE and Mandrake both lack the resources that Red
Hat has to compete in that space. That doesn' t mean that they aren't good
competitors it's just that Red Hat has a pocket full of thousand dollar bills
while they're sitting there with 20s.
Something good will come of all this if these big companies don't forget the
strength of Linux is in communities and the developers. If not, well, we'll
have to wait and see.
ttfn
John
Starting to sound a little like Unix - ours is better than theirs and
who owns what?
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