Microsoft Touts Windows On Linux Site
Microsoft has long made various efforts to show how Windows exceeds Linux in a variety of enterprise situations, but a current advertising campaign by the company showed up in an unlikely place.
To bolster the case of Windows as a better operating system choice than Linux, Microsoft picked up some advertising space and provided links to four whitepapers comparing the two OSes. Microsoft chose what some might see as an unusual site to publish that advertising: Linux Today. Jupitermedia runs Linux Today, a site which aggregates Linux news from a variety of sources.
Three of the four whitepapers listed under the "Linux Reference Center" extol the lower costs of using Windows instead of Linux for Radio Shack, Rayovac, and Regal Cinemas. The fourth cites a study of 550 IT managers and executives regarding Windows security:
...the study found that "corporate enterprises rate Windows security nearly on par with comparable Linux networks." The 2005 survey reveals that users found "a 100 percent improvement in Microsoft's security in the past 12 months."
Linux found acceptance with a lot of system administrators who wanted to deploy various web services like http or ftp servers without springing for a costly Microsoft license. Admins could resurrect old hardware that wouldn't be close to supporting later versions of Windows, install Linux, and leave open only the ports necessary for the server's function.
The approach impacted Microsoft's sales of Windows. High-priced Unix options like proprietary systems from Sun and Silicon Graphics among others saw their customers opt for freely available versions of Linux. Sun eventually took the step of releasing its Solaris operating system as an open system, under its CDDL terms.
---
Email the author here.
Add to | DiggThis | Yahoo! My Web
Receive
Our Daily Email of Breaking eBusiness News
About the Author:
David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.
 WebProNews RSS Feed
More Top News Articles
Contact WebProNews |
