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Sneak
can't resist teasing Microsoft executives about Microsoft's
much-whispered-about, not-much-talked-about plans for the upcoming Longhorn
version of Windows. To be precise, Sneak wonders whether Longhorn will be built
to support Linux applications. This unlikely-sounding feat could be achieved
using existing virtual machine tools to run Linux alongside Windows, but that
would simply produce two separate OSs, neither of which knew much about the
other. In order to make something bigger than the sum of these parts,
Microsoft's existing Services For Unix add-on could be given a more prominent
role, becoming a standard part of the system. This would enable Linux
applications to more fully integrate with Windows, gaining access to
Microsoft's Active Directory, for example.
Clearly
the anti-monopoly brigade might have a say in the matter if Microsoft were to
follow such a path, but that aside, Sneak can think of no reason why Microsoft
would not want to do this. While still searching for confirmation from Microsoft,
Sneak must continue to interpret the nervous laughs and sudden subject changes
of Microsoft executives. When Sneak quizzed Microsoft's UK MD the other day, he
bet Sneak a not very generous £100 that there would be no movement on this
front within five years. On reflection, Sneak wonders whether he was really
betting that SFU will not go into Windows within five years, or simply that in
five years, Longhorn will still not have shipped...
07 Mar 2005
