How free is open source, asks Microsoft

The open source movement centred around Linux has become a concerted challenge to not only Microsoft's monopoly of the desktop environment but also to its growth on the server front.

In response, Microsoft has put in an elaborate strategy to combat the powerful message that Linux gives out. One of these involves the work of their platform strategies group.

The group was formed two years ago globally to address customers and present Microsoft as an 'umbrella' brand instead of as various point or speciality solutions.

"As Microsoft expanded its products beyond the desktop, we found that customers were using non-Microsoft options due to ignorance. Our group therefore proactively approaches customers with our value proposition to gain their mindshare and confidence and thereby a share of their wallet," says Abhijit Das, manager for platform strategies in India.

More recently, Das's work has begun to concentrate on the growing challenge of Linux as an operating environment in specific verticals like education, government and R&D centres. His strategy has been to increase awareness of Microsoft's positive attributes among customers and channel partners.

"Most of my job involves education "" doing away with some of the ideas or perceptions of open source and Linux that has come to be accepted. It also involves a great bit of evangelism and proactive messaging of our value," says he.

"People move towards Linux due to the propagated 'freeness' of the software and the freedom from licensing problems that it promises. With companies like IBM and Oracle backing it, customers think there will be no problems. But these companies are pushing it for their own revenue models. Oracle, because they do not have an operating environment of their own and IBM, because they can make additional revenue from the services entailed," Das argues.

He also points out that the 'freeness' myth cannot last since most Linux vendors like RedHat and SuSe are reducing support for free downloaded versions of Linux and moving to their annual fee-based versions of Linux.

"There is a lot of fragmentation among Linux vendors which could be harmful in the future. What is Linux? Linux is not one entity "" it is either Red Hat or SuSe or Mandrake. All of the vendors have their own standards and their own revenue models. That is how Unix started out and now there are only three distinct versions. And Linux on the server front is continuing to eat into them," says Das.

Das, who works with the sales and marketing teams within Microsoft India, says commercial customers have four key needs in choosing operating environments "" security, cost, performance and interoperability "" in that order.

Presenting his case for Microsoft, Das says, "Viruses are the biggest security concern for enterprises. With Microsoft, since the footprint is large, virus writers are more interested in exploiting its vulnerabilities. But vulnerabilities occur across all platforms. Besides, security begins with an organisation and internal breaches are, in most cases, more harmful than external viruses."

He also presents statistics from various third parties to point out that Microsoft issues fewer patches for its operating environments than most of its competitors.

According to one industry consultancy, in the next one year Linux server units in the country are likely to grow at nearly 15 per cent to 8,900 and Windows units by around 13 per cent to reach 40,000. But Unix units are likely to stagnate around 6,800. Linux servers are likely to grow at the higher rate for the next two years.

But Das is unfazed: "Competition is not new to Microsoft. We have been competing since our inception against everything from WordStar to Oracle now. We competed and took away some of the marketshare from Unix too. Likewise, in the future too we will continue to compete with newer technologies as and when they come up."