My First Thoughts on Hailstorm
It doesnít take a rocket scientist to figure out that the server operating system is going to become a commodity. Linux is already a viable server OS commodity with critical mass. It is going to happen. This is not good news for Microsoftís core business.
People called me crazy when I was saying that services were the thing back in 1995, but hey, that was when Microsoft’s ìCairoî initiative was set to rule the world. Then I called it the Network Services Model, now I call it the Internet Services Model. Hailstorm is Microsoft’s first half-assed attempt at trying to be a supplier of services instead of operating systems. I say ìhalf-assedî because Microsoft is less than half committed. While it says it is making ìos-independentî services, it is only funding the making of ìos-independentî services for Windows. If any serious vendor actually stepped up to porting Hailstorm services to Linux, it would not be met with ìloving open arms.î
Microsoft has taken this sort of position before with COM and DCOMówe have been through this already.
There is a very simple test to know when Microsoft is serious about shifting its bet from the OS business to the services business: When Microsoft budgets real money and engineers to develop services for Linux, it will have made the shift from an OS vendor to a services vendor. (So donít hold your breath, Microsoft developing for Linux will not happen in 2001 or 2002.) Until then, it is a very weak attempt to make us believe that something has really changed. All of this smacks of a totalÖlack-of-sincerity. Having been in a prominent role as an OS vendor, I have an excellent ìlack-of-sincerityî (LOS) meter when it comes to another vendorís stated intentions. Right nowówhen it comes to Hailstorm and Microsoftís ìopenî intentionsómy LOS meter is pegged.
Itís not that I donít trust Microsoft, I mean, whatís not to trust? (Just kidding.) Itís just as long as they are depending on ìpartnersî to complete the job of building services for other platforms, the LOS meter will keep pegging up there in the red.
You see, the Internet Services Model calls for a set of services that belong to no vendor. These services belong to the Internet and make up the Internet Operating System. The folks at Microsoft say they know this, but this is not what is happening. What they are trying to figure out is how to ìownî the services business while saying the obligatory ìopenî and ìindependentî words. Canít be done.
The bad news about this is that we have to live with all this Microsoft FUD while they try to own what can’t be owned and control what canít be controlled. The good news about this is that it leaves lots of room for the Internet OS to happenówith, or without Microsoft.
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