A few days ago I was on Slashdot and came across an interesting article about our friends at Microsoft. Microsoft has listed Red Hat, Inc. and Canonical, Inc. as competitors to their Windows client application while they performed their annual filings to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Well you all must be wondering, what  does this mean? Well due to the increased popularity of Netbooks such as the Acer AspireOne replacing traditional full-sized notebook .Though Windows XP Home shows up on the Netbooks, Linux has appeared on these devices. Canonical’s Ubuntu Linux has even releaesd a Netbook “remix” of the Ubuntu Desktop.

Microsoft has always acknowledged Red Hat as competition in the server market but they have never been too quick to acknowledge any Linux distribution as a competitor to it’s Windows Desktop. For many years, Linux has been a great addition to the data center but never caught on as a desktop option outside of the usage of “fanboys” (like myself). In recent years, Microsoft’s OEM partners such as Hewlett Packard, Intel, Dell, and others have begun to support Linux.

Of course, this isn’t going over well for Microsoft. There is no way that Microsoft can charge what they want to charge for Windows on a machine that costs between $250-$400. Many people who use the linux netbooks don’t always feel “robbed” of the Microsoft experience. Netbooks are meant to be used for cloud computing hence the term “net”. The Linux versions of netbooks can run client style applications such as Office and what not, however they are also meant to take advantage of web applications and clouds. Microsoft Windows Vista has a huge footprint which is why it is not optimal for NetBooks but Linux is capable of such.

Well now thanks to changes in the technological world, Linux is growing in the PC market more than it has before and could be posing a threat to Microsoft and posibly Apple. Apple has not spoken about making a NetBook style device yet however since Apple’s strongest market seems to be in devices, I wouldn’t put it past them. Now who knows what Windows 7 will bring to Microsoft or how the development of Windows Azure will effect cloud deployments but it is for sure that Microsoft has more to consider when it looks at Linux in both the server and PC markets.

Now you notice that Novell wasn’t mentioned here. There are a variety of reasons as to why those Linux deployments aren’t considered threatening to Microsoft. I think it’s because of the deal Microsoft and Novell went into a few year ago that makes Microsoft not see Novell as a Linux threat. Microsoft listens to Novell on Open Source matters and has even released drivers under the GPL due to the influence of one of Novell’s engineers. They have been working together for a while now and that may be why Microsoft doesn’t list them as a competitor.

Categories: Linux News, Microsoft, Open Source ~ Trackback