A thought and no Linux in Life ...its Microsoft Linux
Text taken from the mentioned link, Well Thought Mary Jo Foley.
Microsoft Linux!: Microsoft could have and should have done its own version of Linux. It could have bought a Linux distro vendor or just christened some branch of Windows (with some Unix-compatibility add-ons) as Microsoft Linux. By doing this, Microsoft could have thrown a real monkey wrench into Linux companies' plans. Instead, Microsoft continues to spend lots of money, time and attention fighting open-source software on a whole host of fronts. They should have joined the camp, rather than obsessing on beating them.
http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,1995,1977870,00.asp?kc=MWRSS02129TX1K0000535
Would appreciate your comments on it.
Success of Linux based OS is largely due to community sharing methods used for developing softwares.
Open source movement is more than just Linux Kernel. If you take a short list of things.
1) Apache (controls 70%+ of total web servers on the net)
2) PHP - Top web-programming languages
3) GCC
4) MySQL & PGSQL
5) Open Office
6) ThunderBird & Firefox browser
*) and many more such things (list is endless)
All these pose directly competition to Microsoft products. This is the reason microsft has been busy conviencing people that Open Source is a "Cancer" (Steve Balmer uttered this in some conference/event)
With more and more enterprise houses moving towards open-source, this give clear indication that Open source offers enough innovation to software development. Google has been offering lots of support with "Google Summer Code" contest.
So, in short there are several reason, Microsoft cannot go Linux way.
Vinay Yadav
PHP specialist
http://www.vinayras.com
Taken from rediff.com - With 4,000 students and just 21 computers, the Cotton Hill Girls High School in the south Indian city of Trivandrum wouldn't appear to be at the vanguard of anything related to information technology.
Yet the 71-year-old school is abandoning Microsoft Windows software in favor of its free, open-source rival, Linux. So when students -- typically eight to a machine, seated at two benches -- turn on their PCs they see Linux desktop software that helps them navigate their way to all manner of math, graphics, and writing programs. Continue reading at - http://www.rediff.com/money/2006/sep/27linux.htm
Regards,
Sachin Palewar
Palewar Techno Solutions
Mobile Software Development Outsourcing
Nagpur, India
http://www.palewar.com