Linux vs. Windows?

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     The next battleground: Linux vs. Windows?
     By Mary Jo Foley, Sm@rt Reseller
     April 3, 1998 5:58 AM PST
     
     The increasingly vocal freeware community has championed Linux as 
     a real, viable alternative to Microsoft Corp.'s Windows and NT 
     for years. 
     
     But the lack of a single, large backer has hampered the operating 
     system's acceptance among many corporate customers, integrators 
     and resellers. 
     
     That dynamic may be changing, however, in large part thanks to 
     Netscape Communications Corp. (NSCP) Netscape officially joined 
     the freeware camp as of this week, by putting its Communicator 
     5.0 source code into the public domain. 
     
     Netscape's executive vice president of products Marc Andreessen, 
     who spoke earlier this week at the Silicon Valley Linux Users 
     Group meeting, went on record espousing the potential market 
     benefits of a Communicator plus Linux combination. Andreessen 
     also reportedly committed to making Linux a reference platform 
     equal in stature to Windows for future Netscape product releases. 
     
     Netscape's move couldn't have come at a better time for the 
     freeware world. Next week, some of the leading voices in the 
     freeware movement are slated to hold the first-ever Freeware 
     Summit in Palo Alto, Calif. Representatives affiliated with 
     Mozilla.org (the Netscape freeware arm), Apache, Linux, Perl, 
     Python and Sendmail, among others, are slated to meet to discuss 
     strategies for increasing public acceptance of their wares at the 
     conference, which is being hosted by freeware advocates O'Reilly  
     Associates. 
     
     The freeware community is gaining additional backing from some 
     unlikely places. 
     
     "A year ago, Linux was seen as too much out of the mainstream. 
     The lack of a single backer has hampered it getting a lot of 
     notice. But now it's looking more interesting," said Jamie Love, 
     director of Ralph Nader's Consumer Project on Technology (CPT). 
     
     Last month, CPT sent letters to six of the top PC makers, 
     requesting that they offer customers a choice of operating 
     systems. CPT suggested Linux, BeOS and Apple Computer Corp.'s 
     Rhapsody as possible alternatives to Windows that companies like
     Compaq Computer Corp., Dell Computer, Gateway 2000, 
     Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM Corp. and Micron could offer. 
     
     Love said that Nader's organization is testing a number of Linux 
     flavors on different machines at its own offices.