Mystery memos, free software deliver a way to pull Microsoft down
Packet Rat R. Fink The cyberrodent received an unexpected Halloween goodie last month from—of all places—Microsoft Corp. He suspects the Redmondites had intended it more as a trick. The Rat acquired the so-called Halloween Documents—two internal memos that Microsoft leaked to the world—from the grubby paws of children dressed as Bill and Monica, who came to the burrow door seeking favors.
Packet Rat The cyberrodent received an unexpected Halloween goodie last month fromof all The Rat acquired the so-called Halloween Documentstwo internal memos that The memos detailed the threat to Microsofts monopoly from open-source Naturally, the Rat never looks a gift horse in the mouth. He saw the memos as just the thing he needed to forge ahead with his own agenda: Linux The whiskered one, as readers will remember, has already extolled the virtues of Linux. Microsoft has ample reason to be scared of Linux. If judged solely by check-off feature But until now, it seems, the price of Linux has been too low to be taken seriously by The recent release of a free version of Sybase Inc.s Adaptive Server Enterprise Determined to blast out any remaining pockets of resistance to freeware, he offered Of course, as those who know the wired one might suspect, it didnt take him long All the cyberrodent had to do was change the logos on the network server map. After Even before Sybase started its server giveaway, the furry one had been using Linux Corel Corp. is even giving away a personal version of WordPerfect 8 Personal Edition If slashing budgets werent such a political issue, the Rat figures Linux could The Packet Rat once managed networks but now spends his time ferreting out bad
R. Fink
placesMicrosoft Corp. He suspects the Redmondites had intended it more as a trick.
Microsoft leaked to the worldfrom the grubby paws of children dressed as Bill and
Monica, who came to the burrow door seeking favors.
softwareespecially the Linux operating system and the Apache freeware Web
serverand how Microsoft could counter them.
world domination.
Now he has official Microsoft documents to back him up. Its almost as good as having
a Microsoft federal sales rep volunteer to do the presentationsrevenge of the nerds,
for sure.
lists, Linux would surpass Windows operating systems even before taking price into
consideration.
users accustomed to getting no more than what they pay for.
database management system for the Linux OS, plus other mainstream announcements that
boost open-source software, finally gave the Rat enough leverage to twist a few arms in
his agencys chain of command.
examples of what NASA and the Los Alamos National Laboratory have achieved with Linux and
its derivativessuch as home-grown Linux supercomputers.
to swing into action.
all, he had been running Linux for some time on most of the departments servers.
boxes as database servers for the open-source PostgreSQL database that comes with most
Linux distributions.
for Linux for free on the Web. And other software vendors are starting to pay more
attention to the freeware OS, not just as a client but as a server.
save his agency a few million. Of course, the agencys suits measure their status by
how much cash they can burn per fiscal year. The Rat feels confident he can find
something else to blow the leftover bucks on. New hardware, maybe. Or surplus cheese.
packets in cyberspace. E-mail him at rat@gcn.com.