If you want everyone to put .NET features in software, it's best
to offer the tools to do it for free. Even then, some developers might
find
it more trouble than it is worth.
Well, I am certainly very impressed by the work Red Hat, IBM, Linus, Alan
Cox,
and the many other contributors to Linux have offered. What really got my
attention was the shipping of a journaling file system (I believe with
Red Hat 7.2?) so that you can back out hard drive changes. Is that even
on a whiteboard anywhere at Microsoft? The kernel level IP Chains stuff is
really impressive as well.
My hat goes off to all the Linux contributors. We will actually be shipping
our first Linux app next year, as well as supporting Windows.
Whether good or bad, it really looks like the new reality is that the
"all-windows-all-the-time" shop is becoming a minority, whereas the mixed
Linux/Windows shop is the majority customer profile to be supported,
love it or hate it.
And that makes life interesting, because if you were to apply a "platform
goal"
to both Windows and Linux, it would seem Linux is the software designed to
support the mixed environment, whereas, I'm not entirely sure what Microsoft
wants to do with regards to Linux. I read an article about there being 2
camps
at Microsoft, an Alchin camp and the Silverburg camp. Alchin wanted to
proprietorize
everything and Silverburg wanted to support standards. Apparently Gates
sided
with Alchin and Silverburg went on sabatical. :( I know I am certainly
on the side of the pro-Silverburg people inside Microsoft, it's really a
shame they didn't win the internal battle.
This new .NET business model, however, makes things very interesting,
because it certainly isn't going to attract non-Windows developers. And so
it seems, the people that will pay those fees by and large are the people
that
are most dependent on Microsoft. I.e., those fees seem to be targeted to
milk
the "all-windows-all-the-time" shops dry. And those shops are supposed to
be the best Microsoft customers! And so I find it all very interesting.
Love it or hate it, the new "majority market" is the mixed Windows/Linux
shop.
Kyle Lussier
www.AutoNOC.com