[TriLUG] Here's an article which is definitely about Linux and how other companies are using it to compete w. MS

[al johson]

Fighting Microsoft the Open-Source Way
By: Erick Schonfeld
Date: November 08, 2002

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Apple, IBM, and Sun have opened up their software code to the public in 
their battle against Redmond. It just might work.
While the appeals court ruling last week upholding Microsoft's (MSFT) 
settlement with the Justice Department was a molar or two away from 
being toothless, Microsoft faces a bigger potential check to its 
dominance today than it did at the height of the browser wars five 
years ago. This comes not from an ever-vigilant judiciary but (more 
fittingly) from an ever-adapting market. And it is taking the form of 
Linux and other types of open-source software being developed by swarms 
of volunteer programmers around the world.

The term "open-source" means software code that's available for all to 
see, use, or modify. Any programmer can make changes, but those changes 
are subject to the court of public opinion -- the best ones stay, while 
the worst draw jeers. It's also no longer the sole domain of 
antiestablishment hackers. They gave open-source its start, but the 
Linux operating system, perhaps the best-known open-source program, now 
runs on about a quarter of all servers.

Additionally, open-source code underlies the software products of some 
of Microsoft's fiercest competitors such as Apple (AAPL) Computer, IBM 
(IBM), RealNetworks, and Sun Microsystems (SUNW). Their strategy is to 
take advantage of a sort of software commons. Apple and IBM in 
particular have found that they can build their own proprietary 
software on top of that commons and focus more of their resources on 
creating product enhancements, rather than worrying as much about the 
basic operating system.

IBM, for example, uses Linux to tie together its disparate hardware 
platforms so that the same software can run on any of its various 
servers or mainframes. The company made an early foray into Linux in 
1998, but back then it was not clear whether a big corporation like IBM 
would be accepted by the fellowship of independent Linux programmers. 
"We weren't quite sure how it would work," admits Dan Frye, director of 
IBM's Linux Technology Center, who now oversees 250 programmers who 
work on Linux full-time. But, he adds, the standards are the same 
regardless of who does the programming. "When we write good code, it 
gets accepted," he says. "When we write bad code, it gets slain."

Similarly, Apple is reaping the benefits of open-source. The core of 
its Mac OS X is based on an open-source Linux cousin called FreeBSD (on 
top of which Apple adds its Aqua interface, Quartz graphics engine, and 
user-friendly applications such as iPhoto, iTunes, and iMovie). "It 
helps us to differentiate ourselves against Microsoft," contends Avie 
Tevanian, Apple's chief software engineer.

Initially released in 2001, OS X has already gone through two 
revisions. The most recent one, Jaguar, is pretty major, containing an 
astonishing 150 new features. Apple credits that speedy development 
cycle to the army of independent programmers tweaking and shoring up 
the FreeBSD core. (Prior versions of the Mac operating system were 
created entirely within Apple, from scratch.) "You're seeing more 
innovation come out of the open-source world than the proprietary 
world," says Brian Croll, Apple's senior director of software product 
marketing. His boss, senior VP for marketing Phil Schiller, concurs 
that without open-source, the advances Apple has made with OS X "would 
not have been possible." For instance, one such project, called Samba, 
allows any Unix machine to talk to any Windows machine and share files. 
"The key thing we do," Tevanian says, "is take these technologies and 
package them in ways that consumers can use. We're a delivery vehicle 
that can kick open-source products to millions of consumers."

Even Sun is beginning to tentatively adopt Linux (despite the threat to 
Sun's own Solaris operating system). In addition, it has opened the 
source code to its StarOffice productivity suite, which competes with 
Microsoft Office, as well as that of the Liberty Alliance Project, 
which Sun is spearheading to come up with an alternative to Microsoft's 
Passport digital ID. Efforts are also under way by Sun and others to 
popularize a Linux desktop for Intel-based PCs. "What needs to happen 
is a partnership of some kind between corporations and the open-source 
community," says Sun open-source director Danese Cooper, who 
acknowledges that the proprietary software development model is 
"fundamentally broken."

While it's clear that Microsoft is being attacked by open-source on the 
server and on the desktop, it remains to be seen how effective these 
strategies will be in taking market share away from Redmond. But at 
least the outlines of an alternative computing platform are finally 
emerging. And it didn't take a devilish antitrust lawyer to conjure 
them up, either.