Microsoft Expanding Its Borders
Two recent announcements show that Microsoft is expanding its borders into areas that have been void of a large Microsoft presence, if any at all.
The biggest news comes from Apple, which release a product that will allow hard drives to be partitioned and run OSX on a partition and Windos OS on another. Why would Apple do this? I would think that it would make a number of Apple loyalists very angry, you know “sleepin’ with the devil” and everything. I for one though, being someone that likes my PC, would consider purchasing an Apple computer now if I could run both OS’s and not lose functionality from software I’ve already purchased for my PC, but that may not work on the Mac.
Schiller said company research showed two groups of potential Mac customers, what it called “switchers,” or those likely to switch from Windows to the Mac OS X operating system.
The first group included those who are open to using a Mac but want to run programs that work only on Windows, such as Microsoft’s Outlook calendar program, which isn’t supported on Mac OS X, or popular video games.
The second group, Schiller said, included those open to using the Mac OS X PC, but wanting a “safety net” if they choose to run Windows.
“Most of them will switch and find they never need to run Windows,” Schiller said.
I think they tagged me pretty well on that one. It sure seemed to make the stock market happy though, stocks stored 9% on the news.
In the other related news, Microsoft begins to offer their virtual server software free and it will work with Linux.
Microsoft is pushing further into the virtualization realm, announcing that its Virtual Server 2005 R2 product will provide support for Linux. In addition, the company is now offering the software as a free download.
Along with the free software, Microsoft is offering add-ins to run select Red Hat and Novell SuSE Linux distributions. The company also is offering technical support to help customers consolidate their Linux-based applications on Virtual Server 2005 R2.
With this move, Redmond hopes to ensure that non-Windows operating systems can run on its Virtual Server software and on its future virtualization products.
Times, they are changing. It will be interesting to see how these developments continue to play out.
Source: Apple unveils software to permit Windows use
Source: Microsoft Gives Virtual Nod to Linux
Related Stories
POSTED IN: Business Users, Corporate News, Home User, New Products, Servers, Windows OS's
0 opinions for Microsoft Expanding Its Borders
No one has left a comment yet. You know what this means, right? You could be first!
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: