[ale] The next battleground: Linux vs. Windows?

[Jim Philips]

The next battleground: Linux vs. Windows?
By Mary Jo Foley, Sm at rt Reseller
April 3, 1998 5:58 AM PST

The increasingly vocal freeware community has championed Linux as a
real, viable alternative to Microsoft Corp.'s Windows and
NT for years. 

But the lack of a single, large backer has hampered the operating
system's acceptance among many corporate customers, integrators and
resellers. 

That dynamic may be changing, however, in large part thanks to Netscape
Communications Corp. (NSCP) Netscape officially joined the
freeware camp as of this week, by putting its Communicator 5.0 source
code into the public domain. 

Netscape's executive vice president of products Marc Andreessen, who
spoke earlier this week at the Silicon Valley Linux Users Group
meeting, went on record espousing the potential market benefits of a
Communicator plus Linux combination. Andreessen also reportedly
committed to making Linux a reference platform equal in stature to
Windows for future Netscape product releases. 

Netscape's move couldn't have come at a better time for the freeware
world. Next week, some of the leading voices in the freeware movement
are slated to hold the first-ever Freeware Summit in Palo Alto, Calif.
Representatives affiliated with Mozilla.org (the Netscape freeware arm),
Apache, Linux, Perl, Python and Sendmail, among others, are slated to
meet to discuss strategies for increasing public acceptance of their
wares at the conference, which is being hosted by freeware advocates
O'Reilly & Associates. 

The freeware community is gaining additional backing from some unlikely
places. 

"A year ago, Linux was seen as too much out of the mainstream. The lack
of a single backer has hampered it getting a lot of notice. But now it's
looking more interesting," said Jamie Love, director of Ralph Nader's
Consumer Project on Technology (CPT). 

Last month, CPT sent letters to six of the top PC makers, requesting
that they offer customers a choice of operating systems. CPT suggested
Linux, BeOS and Apple Computer Corp.'s Rhapsody as possible alternatives
to Windows that companies like Compaq Computer Corp., Dell
Computer, Gateway 2000, Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM Corp. and Micron could
offer. 

Love said that Nader's organization is testing a number of Linux flavors
on different machines at its own offices. 
-- 
/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/
Jim Philips			voice: 404-812-6518
Account Manager			support: 404-812-8300
Security First Technologies	fax: 404-812-6616
/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+/