Bill Hilf was long overdue at Microsoft..

Beer28 wrote:

I read it,

2 things I don't get

"As a policy, I don't run anything that competes with Microsoft," Microsoft CIO Ron Markezich said in a December interview with CNET News.com. "My goal is to make sure Microsoft products are the best products in the world. It's an easy choice for me, in that sense, to run Microsoft technology. We don't run Unix. We don't run Linux. We don't run Oracle. We're 100 percent Windows, SQL Server."

Nothing strange about that.  Its a different department, different departments use different products.  My graphics department uses Mac, no one else in the company does.  Most of the developers use Solaris as their primary OS, they also have Windows but oh well.  The admin staff doesnt use Solaris, they use Windows and their is some old JDS distributions still floating around here and there.

Beer28 wrote:

http://www.opensource.org/halloween/halloween10.html

Microsoft will
have brough in $86 million for us including Baystar.  The next deal we
should be able to get from $16-20, but it will be brutial as it is for
go to makerket work and some licences. 

Did Microsoft persuade Baystar to invest?  Nope and Microsoft took out a UNIX license to cover their butts.  Launch all the foil plated conspiracy theiries you want, but most people work on fact.

Beer28 wrote:

Did you all donate that $100 million in unix licenses to charity?
Apparently Novell is now suing SCO to get the money back since it was really thiers to license.

Completely futile attempt by Novell.  All Novell is doing here is pumping up its PR.  You see Novell launched this attempt after recieving the 50 million dollar bribe from IBM to pump up its sales.  Its painted this pretty picture that they will be the saviors of the Linux cause and you guys bought it and their sales have gone up.  Right now they are just milking the cash cow while it can simply pumping the religon for all its worth..  Its highly unlikely that any judge is going to allow Novell to come back 9 years later and renig on a deal like that.

Beer28 wrote:

The 2nd thing I don't understand is this

"One example, Hilf said, was on the instant-messaging side. There was an IM client called Gaim that allowed connectivity to MSN instant messaging, but the program was not able to use the HTTP protocol, the only technology means available to Hilf. So he set his team of open-source software experts to write the needed patch. He submitted it to the open-source group that oversees Gaim's development and the changes were accepted.

"Now we can use it, and so can everyone else who uses Gaim," Hilf said."

How many people would actually use a Linux version of MSN Messenger?  Not many, GAIM works and it works well.  GAIM already has the mindshare so just build on that.  Its like MSOffice for Linux.  How many would actually buy it?  Not many would, while you beer may be willing to pay for good software the vast majority of Linux users out there dont want to pay.