Why have customers asked for Windows and Linux?

Why have customers asked for Windows and Linux to work together? Joe Wilcox at Jupiter Research has figured out the details. But, the best responses are from customers themselves;

"The City of Seattle’s IT staff supports a number of different operating environments, including Microsoft Windows^®, Novell NetWare and several varieties of UNIX/Linux. All these environments require separate physical servers, and our data center is running out of space. This new Microsoft and Novell collaboration agreement could allow significant virtualization of servers, reducing the number of physical platforms we’d have to maintain. That, in turn, reduces costs for maintenance, electricity, cooling and space,etc"

Bill Schrier
Chief Technology Officer
City of Seattle

“Microsoft and Novell should be commended for putting customers and innovation before licensing ideology. This is the kind of achievement that can only be reached when parties respect one another’s innovations and intellectual property and put their customers first. 

This announcement is a victory for customers and the industry, including small software developers developing solutions for both Windows and Linux platforms. It’s further proof that free market forces are working and enable a vibrant software ecosystem that provides customer choice, innovation and competitive products. 

The reality is that customers are not interested in the best proprietary product or best open source product; they want the best product, period. With their pioneering approach, Microsoft and Novell are giving customers the choice they have demanded, leaving behind the philosophical licensing debates around open source and proprietary software."

Jonathan Zuck
President
Association for Competitive Technologies

Customers have been using Linux and Windows for years, but typically on separate servers, and for very different tasks. It is now quite common for a customer to choose Windows to run a CRM or production management system, and choose Linux to run a print server, file server, or a rapidly changing environment.

What has changed is that now customers are using virtualization to better utilize their servers, and they now want to run Windows and Linux on the same server. Customers also wanted assurances that they would not be caught in the crossfire of patent infringement lawsuits between  the vendors.

This deal is a big win for customers and the industry. See my previous post for more details on the deal.