Sun Microsystems Inc CEO Scott McNealy has spoken out on Linux, calling the open source operating system a great way to get the wrong answer. Still, said McNealy, who was dedicating the company’s new Burlington, Massachusetts campus, using Linux is better than paying Microsoft’s usurious fees and monopolistic prices for second-rate software like CaptiveX. As for his customers who are reportedly developing applications on Linux for deployment on Solaris, McNealy said that was: fine by us.
Meanwhile ABCNews.com was hosting an online Q&A with Mr Linux himself, Finnish programmer and Transmeta Corp engineer Linus Torvalds. Sun may not relish the prospect of competition for Solaris, but Torvalds claims other hardware vendors like his operating system. I’m seeing a lot of interest from vendors to start making sure that Linux support is available, he said. So, it seems, do corporate users: I’m told Linux is already running on some nuclear power plants.
As for Redmond, Torvalds thinks Microsoft Corp should ship applications for his platform. I don’t see MS embracing Linux any time in the near future, but eventually, sure, why not? he wrote. They’ve embraced other OSs – they may not enjoy it, but they do it when it makes sense for them from a market perspective. Although I’ll be just as happy seeing Office offerings from other companies, and people not being quite so hung up on MS all the time.
My one vision has always been a very amorphous one – ‘make Linux the best I can,’ Torvalds told his audience. As a more direct goal, I really want that in a few years when somebody buys a computer, he/she actually end up seriously thinking about some choice in operating systems, rather than just defaulting to whatever has 95% of the market. And I want and expect Linux to be one of those choices.
