Muglia Discusses Competitive Threat From Linux

Computerworld - Bob Muglia, senior vice president of Microsoft's Windows Server division, last week spoke with Computerworld about a range of issues, including the competitive threat posed by Linux. Excerpts follow:

How is Microsoft differentiating itself from the Linux competition? I don't really think that Linux itself is our competitor. I think Linux is a set of technologies, and open-source technologies in general are a set of technologies that competitors like Red Hat or Novell and IBM pull together to provide alternative competitive solutions for customers. Linux has evolved to be a commercial product. All the customers I sell to buy Linux-based products from companies like Red Hat or Novell. They put them together, stacks with other software, typically commercial software, like WebSphere. And if you look at a solution that exists in that space -- say, an IBM solution -- it's certainly not free. The cost of acquiring that is actually quite comparable to the cost of acquiring a Microsoft solution.

How can users get an edge by running non-Microsoft applications on Windows instead of Linux? Because we're a software company, our objective straightforwardly is to use software to reduce the cost and increase the innovation for an IT organization. I think our objectives are very much in alignment with those of most IT shops inside major companies. And there's a huge distinction of that versus an environment where complexity is what is encouraged and services must be added on top of that. I think if you look at Linux and Linux stacks and the companies that are promoting those, they have a vested interest in selling consulting services. We don't. It's that simple.

For which server workloads are you seeing the most competition from Linux? Application migration off of Unix is one where certainly Linux has some traction. Typically, there are custom-built business applications that people have on proprietary Unix that they want to move to x86 hardware. ... Another category is networking environments, where their needs tend to be fairly simplistic.

Bob Muglia, senior vice president of Microsoft's Windows Server division

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