This time in '99: Microsoft keeps a close eye on Linux

NEWS This is how the original story broke in May 1999: Microsoft has created a team to analyse Linux as a competitive threat, according to US reports. The Wall Street Journal reported that around ten people were involved in the team, run by Jim Ewell, director of marketing for Windows 2000. Microsoft has not commented on the story, but ever since open source guru Eric Raymond leaked the Halloween memos last year the industry has known that Microsoft is watching Linux closely. Some in the Linux community have accused the software giant of masterminding a plan to undermine open source - a strategy that seemed to come to life when test laboratory, Mindcraft, was paid by Microsoft to benchmark NT against Red Hat Linux. When NT came out on top, the open source community, including creator Linus Torvalds, cried foul. Mindcraft and Microsoft have since offered to rerun the tests in an independent lab, overseen by representatives of the Linux community. Netproject director, Eddie Bleasdale, said the open source movement has nothing to fear from Microsoft. "The open source community should really be ignoring the attacks that we're getting from Microsoft. We've got a completely new philosophy and a completely new approach to the way we should be developing computers." Consultant Peter Hollands of Dale Strategies, agrees: "The issue is not really between Linux and Microsoft, it's about Linux and open source versus commercial, traditionally-produced code, regardless of whether it's Microsoft or some other vendor." Bleasdale insisted that Microsoft's competitive analysis would do no good and the company should simply give up on the operating system war. "Microsoft has got a good body of office automation tools that they should port as quickly as possible to Linux and Gnome," he claimed. But Hollands warned that corporates will not be turning their backs on Windows 2000 just yet. "I'm still an advocate of Linux on the server, for small and medium-sized businesses," he said. "But I'm not prepared to promote Linux on the desktop yet and I'm not sure it's ready, or will be for some time. "But I am very impressed with Miguel de Icaza's work on the Gnome interface. It really does seem to be taking off," he said.