[Linux-bruxelles] Linux is Microsoft's biggest competitive challenge ever

[Nicolas Pettiaux]

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=6697

Linux is Microsoft's biggest competitive challenge ever 

 Belluzzo spills the beans

 By Paul Hales: jeudi 12 décembre 2002, 08:55 

 WHEN RICK BELLUZZO left the number three job at Microsoft, to later become 
chief cheese at Quantum, rumours arose suggesting it was strife at the hands 
of Steve Ballmer that forced him from Voledom. 

Beluzzo, in an interview, doesn?t deny his approach was "different" from the 
typical Microsoft executive, but avoids dishing the dirt on Ballmer. Instead 
he evidently finds a certain liberation in being able to talk about Linux. If 
"someone raised the subject of Linux, I didn't jump up and scream. I said, 
'Talk to me about why you like Linux, and let's talk through this.' That was 
a different approach than the norm," he says in a revealing interview at 
computerworld.com. 

"I wasn't a believer in Linux at Microsoft -- I couldn't be a believer at 
Microsoft. But Linux is clearly the biggest competitive challenge that 
Microsoft has ever faced. It's unlike anything before -- there's not a 
company behind it. It's very elusive, in a way," he says. 

Though he doesn?t see Linux ousting Windows on the desktop, Beluzzo says he 
sees the open source alternative tipping up in @ new appliances and new 
segments, "which means it could" really affect Microsoft through prevention 
of Microsoft from moving into new segments effectively." 

Asked if he?s now a Linux advocate, Beluzzo responds: "I consider myself an 
advocate of whatever allows us to achieve our goals most effectively. And 
today, for us, that certainly is Linux because it's free; it has a good 
modular design; you can modify it to meet your needs. There is nothing else  
that can meet our needs like that."

 Belluzzo believes the combination of Linux and something like IBM's 
WebSphere pose a real threat to Windows hegemony. "It's not Linux that's the 
threat, as much as the layer of software that's being built above that, like 
WebSphere, and some of these other new tools and new development environments 
that can interact with virtually any technology below it. That allows for the 
operating system to be less relevant. So, in that environment, there's Linux 
and WebSphere vs. Microsoft, which is Windows from top to bottom."

 "So that's the debate," he says. "Is Windows going to grow into a broader 
application development environment, or is IBM going to be successful with 
something like WebSphere? Microsoft has a lot of work to do to make Windows 
as powerful and flexible as the combination of Linux and some of these other 
tools." µ 
-- 
Nicolas Pettiaux
Association électronique libre pour la promotion des 
droits de l'Homme dans la Société de l'information (AEL) -
www.ael.be