Microsoft Linux! - Is it April Fools already?
My phone and email have been going not stop for the past few hours regarding the latest announcement coming out of Redmond. And for those who have asked, as far as I can tell, Hell didn't freeze over yet, but its true, Microsoft and Novell are partnering together to promote LINUX!
My first reaction, was to look at the calendar to make sure it wasn't a belated April fools joke or some ha ha, gotcha message at the bottom. If you look at other things that have taken place lately with Oracle stepping into the Linux realm and announcing they were going to start offering support for Red Hat Linux, it starts to make more sense.
In my travel's throughout the United States for the past 5 years working in the Partner Channel, I've come to realize there is a love / hate relationship with in the Microsoft / Linux world or at least people seem to be putting off that vibe. To me it's more of a rivalry like you find among sports fans where University of Texas fans and Oklahoma fans like to battle it out at the Red River Shootout (28-10 Texas!, Yeah Baby),once a year in College football. Yet, when it comes down to it, everyone has a similar passion for the game.
In our case, the game is not one most jocks follow, its the geek's game, of the computing realm. Fortunately for me, as a Microsoft employee, I can breath a sigh of relief, because I've been somewhat of a fan of SUSE even before Novell got their hands on them and I can now talk about it, without fear of the man coming down on me.
When it comes down to it, Linux is good for business because competition promotes innovation, which everyone benefits from in the long run. What will be interesting to see is if there are any invisible lines drawn in the sand between the Linux guru's of the world because Microsoft is now venturing further into their world. (Hello Lindows!) Only Joking HR, don't slap me, just yet.
I want to here from Vlad Mazek and his Vladville review on the subject as he works in both the Microsoft and Linux worlds and always has his on spin on the latest news in the market so I will keep checking my RSS Feeds to see what comes through in the next day or two...