Solving Microsoft's Linux problem

...Microsoft relied mainly on outside consultants to provide reports on how the other half lived.

Shrewder
These days, Microsoft is growing shrewder about open source software. It has realised that some of its businesses — such as the management tools and Virtual Server units — can boost their bottom line by offering better Linux interoperability.

"Microsoft is a very opportunistic company," Hilf said. "It is looking for ways to increase its business. We want to continue to build software that sells well."

Hilf said that on the Redmond campus, in discussions with colleagues, he often finds himself acting as a proxy for a customer who runs Linux.

"They will come to me saying 'Hey, Bill, is this something you think Linux customers would really be interested in, or is this stupid?" Hilf said.

Hilf's ability to straddle the divide between the Windows and Linux worlds also makes him popular with Microsoft customers, who ask him for advice on getting the two to work together. "A lot of customers say, 'I have mixed stuff too; you must have figured out how to do blah, blah, blah,'" Hilf said.

Even setting up shop amid Redmond's all-Windows world was a challenge for Hilf.

He started with the ambitious goal of creating a server room with dozens of flavours of Linux, along with commercial Unix software from Sun, IBM, HP and Apple. The goal, he said, was to have something "more mixed then any real, sane customer would have."

"No customer runs 40 different versions of Linux on 200 servers," he said. "It's silly."

But getting even one Linux machine via Microsoft's purchasing arm proved to be a challenge. Ditto for the other types of non-Microsoft gear he needed to set up the centre.

"Half the stuff I needed to buy I couldn't even buy through our normal processes," Hilf said.

He sat down...

• « Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next »