Take a peek at these respected names in the community: JBoss, Linspire, Novell, Xandros, XenSource, Zend, Fuji Xerox, LG Electronics, and Samsung.
JBoss, September 21, 2005
XenSource, June 17, 2005
Zend, October 31, 2006
Novell, November 2, 2006
Fuji Xerox, March 22, 2007
Samsung, April 18, 2007
Xandros, June 4, 2007
LG Electronics, June 6, 2007
Linspire, June 13, 2007
What do they have in common?
A non-aggression treaty with Microsoft, that’s what!
If you look at the nine companies listed at the start of this article, what do you think they are lacking in terms of legal representation? You should also remember that one of them also prevailed against Microsoft on several occasions in the courts in the United States.
Yet, they all came to realize that to play in the enterprise sandbox, they needed Microsoft’s blessing, and willingness to look away, in order to better serve their clients, and by proxy, their stakeholders.
I wasn’t going to comment further on this incendiary topic; however, reading that leaders of Ubuntu, Red Hat, and Mandriva had all come out with declarations of solidarity against Microsoft prompted this.
For clarity, I will refer to those three dissenting companies as Red Rhat, Mandrake, and Ubuntu going forward.
Of the three, one company without a stake in the enterprise is Ubuntu. While terribly popular with end users, Ubuntu is not generally used in the enterprise and, to the best of my very limited knowledge on the subject, probably not supported.
What about the Dell deal? Well, since you asked, that deal is for personal systems only. Dell isn’t going to install Ubuntu on business PCs, leastways not at this time.
Next is Mandrake. To paraphrase a couple of sentences I read not too long ago: apparently, Mandrake is some kind of Linux distro. It seems very well regarded among the Linux crowd.
Finally, we come to Red Rhat.
Going back to the top nine companies, does any company jump out, screamingly at you?
Did you say JBoss?
Clap for yourself.
JBoss is a division of Red Rhat.
The same JBoss that signed a pact with Microsoft back in September of 2005.
Isn’t it surprising that the head monkey at Red Rhat can go around spouting those hackneyed comments knowing that the détente signed for in those Microsoft-JBoss covenants conveyed to his company at the close of the deal?
Have you ever asked yourselves why the top two companies who have admirable bank balances have declined to produce their own Linux distros?
Have you?
Trip this:
1) IBM wants to partner with Red Rhat to distribute and support Red Rhat’s Linux
2) Oracle threatens to reduce, by 50%, the vigorish Red Rhat milks from its customers under a services contract.
Why haven’t the Mensas® in the Linux community asked the obvious questions, namely
a) Why don’t these ‘stalwarts’ of industry produce their own distro, and
b) Why don’t these ‘stalwarts’ of industry really produce their own distro?
Really, why?
Is it because they know that they would certainly run afoul of Microsoft’s patents?
Especially since they, unlike Ubuntu, Mandrake, and Red Rhat, possess the deep pockets necessary for an action by Microsoft be worth it? To Microsoft, that is.
To recap: Ubuntu: said no, because of its community of developers. Mandrake, I know nothing about. And frankly couldn’t give a @*&# about. Red Rhat: sorta, kinda misleading the proletariat by shouting, no, non, nyet, all the time knowing that a signed JBoss contract was in the company equivalent of Fort Knox.
Of these three companies, the only standup one seems to be Ubuntu, since it attempts to stand on its own merit.
My absolute last word on this topic.
The Leader in Network Knowledge
just a few notes
1. Ubuntu is actually quite well supported, both by Canonical and hundreds of licensed affiliates. Example (european companies) - http://www.ubuntu.com/support/commercial/marketplace/europe
2. JBoss was acquired by Red Hat in 2006 - http://www.redhat.com/about/news/prarchive/2006/jboss.html
3. Each of these 3 resisting companies is far more important then all collaborators altogether (all but Novell).
This Article is Appalling
"And frankly couldn't give a @*&# about." I doubt that the Mandrake community has a lot of time for you either you absurd little man. If you want your opinions to be taken seriously you should try adopting a more adult tone.
Look at the Microsoft time line
If you would like to say something about the merits of Linux distros you really need to take a look at the practices of Microsoft.
Of all of the underhanded stuff they have done I would say that this is the worst. It reminds me of the "Boston Tea Party", Taxation without representation.
Microsoft say you own me something, Linux says prove it, Microsoft says no. WTF?
You can read the entry I wrote on my blog if you care to, that would be the rest of my opinion about the matter.