So RedHat is offering a version of Windows that is geared to the desktop. But the “free” operating system of Linux will cost you $70 a year to RedHat for support, etc. Sorry this is doomed to fail.
Today I did a session on “From Interoperability to Migration: SQL Server and Linux Databases” where we showed an Oracle 10g instance running on RedHat trying to interoperate with SQL Server running on Windows 2003. We had several issues trying to get the Oracle to work as well as many other things. (Like the iSQL web client showing different results than the command line iSQL).
Let me say this to the Linux community. You love Linux because you are geeks. And in my geekier moments I think that there are some really awesome cool things in Linux. But I can’t walk my dad through most of the things in Linux. Nor is playing music or a DVD a trivial task. So my message is: Make Linux much easier to install and use by the average user. Then you stand a chance. Instead of bashing Microsoft, look at when they do well and try to improve on that and look at what Microsoft does poorly and try to make it better in your offering. If any Linux geek comments today that “Microsoft does nothing good” you’ve missed the point and can go continue playing with Linux in your own little world and I will continue to work with Microsoft in the real world.
