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Microsoft Hires Director of Linux Interoperability
Posted by
kdawson
on Fri Jun 08, 2007 10:37 AM
from the over-to-the-dark-side dept.
from the over-to-the-dark-side dept.
AlexGr sends us to Todd Bishop's blog in the Seattle PI for news that Microsoft has brought someone aboard to serve as its Director of Linux Interoperability and head up the Microsoft/Novell Interoperability Lab. "...his name will be familiar to people in the open-source community. In an e-mail late Thursday night, a Microsoft representative said the role will be filled by Tom Hanrahan, who was most recently the director of engineering at the Linux Foundation, the group created through the recent combination of the Free Standards Group and the Open Source Development Labs."
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no... (Score:3, Funny)
Reminds me of "We're from the government..." (Score:3, Interesting)
Microsoft having someone with the title of "Director of Linux Interoperability" is one of those euphemisms. He's not going to improve interoperability, but he'll be addressing interoperability. Much of the interoperability between Microsoft operating systems and Linux have happened despite Microsoft, not with Microsoft's help. Th
A fox says, "We want to interoperate with hens." (Score:3, Interesting)
"Microsoft Hires Director of Linux Interoperability"
translates as
"Fox wants to interoperate with henhouse". All in the name of efficiency, of course. For the fox.
In my opinion, there is a lot of misunderstanding about Microsoft. People get confused, and think Microsoft is a software company that is abusive. But maybe a better explanation is that Microsoft is an abuse company that uses software as its vehicle to deliver abuse.
REAL managers can make a profit without being adversarial.
Foxes have always thought highly of penguins... (Score:3, Interesting)
Foxes want to interoperate with penguins. Only to help the world, of course. And because foxes think penguins are cute. (Copyright Fox P.R. agency 2007)
Microsoft Director of Linux Interoperability(TM) (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Finally (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Finally (Score:4, Funny)
I hope they will release
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
apt-get install adware
Re:Finally (Score:5, Insightful)
For example: better NFS client / serving from Windows server, Office being able to read (not write) ODF, running Linux applications on Windows, stuff like that. Things that help people migrate OFF Linux. There may be a side effect that some things in Linux will work better with MS, but that is a side effect and not intended behavior.
If MS was serious about working with Linux in a positive way, they would be releasing proper documentation on their file formats and network protocols with no strings attached (such as massive license fees.) Unless forced to do so (by the EU) this will NEVER happen.
Parent
It's a subtle trap. Really. (Score:3, Insightful)
The idea is a simple one. You want to lock people into your own platform while providing a migration path away from the other platforms. In short you want your customers to see all other platforms as legacy systems.
This is the entire process behind SUA, Identity Services for UNIX, and the like.
It is also the idea behind Samba, WINE, Mono, etc.
Thus, from a Linux perspective, while it would make my life easier to have more UNIX/Linux interop from Microsoft, what w
That's what the patent deals are for... (Score:4, Interesting)
With Linux, this is harder. They can't use a price advantage to 'choke off the air supply'. Or can they? To me, that's what the Novell patent deal is all about (from MS's point of view, at least). To un-freeify Linux. Microsoft is confident that they can compete on a level playing field. After all, they have a huge starting advantage, plus they still have the ability to tie their server products to their desktop products. But they can no longer undercut on price. That is, unless they convince the marketplace that free Linux is illegal, and the only way to get Linux is to pay Novell's price. Then they can once again price Novell out of the market.
At least one of the Linux-esque ways of doing business is running servers for free, or at least without per-seat licensing. If that goes away, at least a large part of those Linux fans will lose some of their attachment.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Maybe it means that Windows will get EXT2/EXT3 file system support in order to read Linux partitions.
That support is already there [fs-driver.org]. Though it would be better if it was in Windows by default.
Maybe it means that Linux will get a Microsoft approved NTFS file system support for Linux so it can finally write to NTFS partitions.
That also is possible [ntfs-3g.org], and it works quite well.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Finally (Score:5, Funny)
HELL, Earth. June 8th, 2007. (NASDAQ: HELQ) Hell has Frozen Over.
In a shocking event, Hell has taken on an icy interior today. Says one demon, "It's actually quite nice, what with the flying bacon and all." Operators of the Infernal Furnace spoke to us briefly: "All the sudden our computers froze", "We were installing a Microsoft Service Pack and all the sudden a penguin came on the screen and the whole environment changed." Hell has scheduled a press conference to happen later this week where we will receive an update on this situation.
Representatives at Microsoft were not available for comment.
Contacts:
Lucifer,
666-666-1234
lucifer@inhell.com
Steve Ballmer,
666-666-1233
therealdevil@inhell.com
Parent
It's already begun!!! (Score:3, Informative)
Errr..
Windows Vista [gadgetell.com]
Windows Vista Home Basic (and Home Basic N) - A simple version of Windows Vista that is aimed at single PC homes.
Windows Vista Home Premium - Whole home entertainment and personal productivity throughout the home and on the go.
Windows Vista Business (and Business N) - Previously Windows Vista Professional Edition, Windows Vista Business is roughly analogous to XP Pro today.
Windows Vista Enterprise - Optimiz
Wow... (Score:3, Funny)
Razzing doesn't break bones (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Are you sure you don't mean... (Score:2, Funny)
Are you sure you don't mean... SATAN!???
I recall Netware and NT interoperability... (Score:5, Interesting)
Great! (Score:2, Insightful)
hehe (Score:3, Funny)
Evil is insidious.
Re:hehe (Score:4, Insightful)
No need to assume he'll become evil.
Not yet, anyway.
Parent
re (Score:5, Funny)
Tom: Really?
Bill: No, but I hve tons of money for you!
Tom: Dark side it is!
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Still, outside of that you're correct. The star system tends to highlight one particular individual out of a large number of nearly equal merit. If the star leaves, an understudy is likely t
Typo. (Score:5, Funny)
ODF (Score:4, Insightful)
Or, hell, send some developers over to the Wine project.
Since none of this is happening, I can only assume that this "Linux interoperability" guy is either a complete hypocrite, or is going to have no real power within the company.
Re:ODF (Score:5, Insightful)
Why? because linux has a significant server marketshare, and they are FORCED to interoperate with it or face losing marketshare themselves.
Linux however has very little desktop market share, so it's more profitable for microsoft to ignore it and thus make it harder for people to migrate to linux.
Ever noticed how a lot of the interoperability between windows and other os's centers around those os's implementing proprietary protocols from windows, rather than windows implementing standards from other os's. There have been a few other cases where microsoft have been forced to implement standards to interoperate (tcp/ip, image formats etc) but they have always preferred to force their own proprietary implementations on people if they will stick (netbeui, bmp etc).
Parent
Re:ODF (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Connections (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Connections (Score:4, Interesting)
fixed.
Parent
Chill the still (Score:3, Funny)
Just another step in validating their IP... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Linux for years now has become a server competitor , unix was the main server os for awhile , and small servers are dominated by windows. Maybe they finally got the hint that their os is insecure by nature.
I would love to see a windows rewrite from the ground up. Completely based on security and some of the fundamentals that make windows so easy to use. It is possible
And Who Did They Hire?? (Score:5, Funny)
how's it been going with Sun (Score:5, Interesting)
BTW, Microsoft does not want to interoperate with Linux and OSS. They want it gone, so any "talk" about deals and smoke-mirror agreements will only flounder, stall, and drag on forever. Anybody who believe otherwise is just fooling themselves.
LoB
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
There is just so much history of this that anybody who would even consider a partnership with Microsoft must be playing out their exit strategies for their busines
Worst story ever? (Score:3, Funny)
* Ballmer throwing chairs
* Embrace, extend, extinguish
* Clippy hate
* Funny BSOD jokes
In the meantime, I'm curious who took the job, because people will hate them for no reason now. Ah zealotry, without thee, what would I do on this site?
Forgive my ignorance but... (Score:3, Interesting)
Smoke and mirrors (Score:3, Insightful)
Anything else is just smoke and mirrors.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't really get how releasing information like "The .doc format is a basically a memory dump of certain parts of Microsoft Word" would be useful...
The problem is, we understand the file formats, they're just small pieces of memory dumps of what Microsoft Word uses internally. In order to implement them correctly you would need to emulate the DESIGN of what Micr
Pesky tags... (Score:5, Insightful)
itsatrap would be completely apropos here.
Just sayin'... the tagging system currently may as well be a checkbox list of categories. Not exactly user generated.
Quick Question (Score:3, Insightful)
Sera
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Once again (Score:5, Insightful)
If we lived in that universe where "Director of Linux Interoperability" actually meant what you think it means. Unfortunately, out in the REAL WORLD, that title actually means "Director of increasing the perception of interoperability with Linux system while actually making them less compatible."
So yeah, keep living in your dream world.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Once again (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
OMG MS copies Apple again
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Xenix [wikipedia.org]
It's all about MS-Office profits (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd say much sooner than that. These days Microsoft's cash cow is Office, not Windows. As GWB is having some trouble in maintaining his Google bomb [google.com], Microsoft will soon realize that MS-Office in Linux is a better business model for them than OpenOffice in Linux.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
ReactOS isn't a Linux variant by any means. It's an attempt to reimplement Windows completely from the ground up, without using any Linux components.