Guys,

Could this really happen???

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(Report from newsfactor.com)


In a prediction almost too unbelievable to imagine, Meta Group on Monday estimated that software giant Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) will bend to customer demands and offer Linux for Web services and server software by the end of 2004.

The Stamford, Connecticut-based research firm predicted that by 2007, 45 percent of new servers will use Linux instead of Windows-based applications, particularly for database, Web hosting and e-mail applications. As a result, the group said it believes Microsoft will respond by adding proprietary apps, including .NET , to a Linux environment beginning in late 2004.

The research firm also noted that back-office applications, including SQL Server, IIS and Exchange, could be included in a Microsoft Linux conversion.

Pricing could be affected in such a shift, as Microsoft would change its pricing structure to become more competitive with Linux, including repricing Windows or separating the operating system into a "kernel" with "add-on" components.

Currently, Linux is used on between 15 and 20 percent of new server operating systems, Meta Group said.


Microsoft Denies Claim

Peter Houston, senior director in Microsoft's server group, told the E-Commerce Times in a statement that "Windows provides greater business value and lower long-term costs for customers that the competing platforms, including Linux. Microsoft will not be engineering server software expressive for Linux and continues to make its bets on the Windows platform."

And Yankee Group senior analyst Laura DiDio told the E-Commerce Times that she believes Microsoft will only make such a move if market conditions force it to do so.

"I think they probably have some development teams working on it just in case," DiDio said. "But I don't think Microsoft is going to support Linux unless it becomes painfully clear that they absolutely have to because customers are demanding it."


Forcing the Issue?

Customer dissatisfaction with Microsoft, coupled with a still-stagnant IT sector, could force the Linux issue sooner rather than later.

DiDio pointed to a Yankee Group study conducted earlier this year, in which 38 percent of respondents said they were actively looking for Microsoft alternatives. Moreover, when asked which vendor they would most like to discontinue business with, Microsoft was the number one answer of respondents.

"[Respondents] were so angry with Microsoft over licensing and the price hikes, the perceived bullying, the monopolistic practices and so on," DiDio said. "[Microsoft] has got to be concerned."


Negative Comments Backfire

The most recent concern of the software giant has been an effort at publicly softening its stance on open source initiatives.

Microsoft's response to the growing pervasiveness of Linux has been legendary -- the company has called it a "cancer" in the past. But the software giant's tone has changed in recent months.

A company memo posted last month at OpenSource.Org detailed the results of an open source research project presented at a Microsoft internal Linux Strategic Review in Berlin in September.

The report, Microsoft's Attitudes Towards Shared Source and Open Source Research Project, aimed to better understand how certain groups perceived open source, Linux, Shared Source and the GPL , as well as to understand which "messages" would be effective with each audience.

"Messages that criticize OSS, Linux, & the GPL are NOT effective," the memo noted. Moreover, messages that undermine the open source effort "are only marginally effective in driving unfavorable opinions around OSS, Linux, and the GPL, and in some cases backfire."