microsoft vehemently denied it has any plans to port its microsoft office suite to linux, as widely reported last week (including our story last thursday). the story surfaced on wininfo and paul thurrott's wininformant website and newsletter, with news that an israeli company called mainsoft was working with ms to get office working with linux and other unix flavors (see the original wininformant story).
a microsoft spokesman quickly contacted thurrott and said that mainsoft was working only with internet explorer and windows media player, trying to get those programs working with unix. despite this official denial, thurrott points out many ms denials in the past that developed into real programs (e.g., project cool which morphed into the new c# initiative). he also found other indications that something more than ie porting is probably going on. thurrott promises to continue following the story and speaking to his contacts (including some folks at mainsoft).
for more information, please see wininformant.
as chief technologist rob said in his opinion when we reported on this story last week, it makes sense for microsoft to get office running on linux (and unix in general), so the vehement and rapid denials from ms do seem a bit fishy. if you get a chance, read the thurrott articles i linked to above and notice how his reporting was much more substantiated than just a mere rumor. it does seem like microsoft is definitely exploring a valid business possibility …
so why are the ms execs so afraid of being associated with linux? maybe because they don't want any efforts on their part helping to legitimize the only possible rival to the windows os monopoly. as rob said, if ms got office running on linux, one of the chief barriers to linux acceptance in the corporate world would disappear. so many offices and corporations are tied so tightly to microsoft office programs that running any non-windows os on employees' desktops means far too much expense and retraining to be practical (in the execs' minds). since there are versions of office for the macos, there's less resistance to having macs on a network, but there are still lots of companies that balk about macs in a corporate environment because they're harder to support in a windows-majority office and because there are fewer software programs for the platform than there are for windows. linux could be a great corporate desktop os, but if you can't run word and excel on it it's got no chance anytime soon. thus, ms doesn't want even the slightest hint of it working with linux to get out in the public.
but i agree with mr. thurrott and rob: ms is definitely up to something with linux, and i'm sure within a year or two we'll get the official retraction of this initial denial.
user comments 24 comment(s)
|go figure (11:22am est tue aug 22 2000)
i guess the search for unix programmers to port m$ office over to linux failed. like i said before, good luck finding a unix programmer to switch to the dark side. i just call it as i see it. – by unixguy!
|insight? (12:08pm est tue aug 22 2000)
i can think of a reason why they would keep any development of office for unix on the qt. if microsoft is eventually broken up into two companies – an applications developer and an operating system, than it no longer makes sense for the application developing company to only produce office for windows and macintosh because they no longer care if people continue to use windows or use any other operating system. i think it's a bed hedging strategy. if ms stays together, than we won't see it. if/when they get broken up, the company that produces office will release unix office which will just further increase their marketshare in the office applications market. – by ideaman
|agree with ideaman (1:29pm est tue aug 22 2000)
breaking up microsoft will only make them stronger. because then the application side of microsoft can become bigger by porting all of their applications to many more operating systems. – by gei
|ms linux (2:04pm est tue aug 22 2000)
i think ms is going to release ms linux. but first they need to make sure there software is going to work on linux by porting it to linux than selling it to the public for real world testing…the micro$oft way. – by kbc
|m$ linux (2:15pm est tue aug 22 2000)
if bill gates can make more money doing it [porting to linux], it will be done. – by wdk
|m$ linux (2:37pm est tue aug 22 2000)
this follows bill's logic: if you can't create it, buy it or steal it, then trick people into thinking its better, then rake in the bucks as the sheep rush to buy it. – by rdp
|rumor (4:24pm est tue aug 22 2000)
i think it was a rumor spread by linux hopefuls who are secretly in love with ms. we know you guys, you say ms is a money grubbing company, but love everything about them – right down to the cartoon paper clip. – by jj
|m$-linux (4:45pm est tue aug 22 2000)
in two years, when linux combined with enterprise-unixes has swamped other oss, ms will replace the troublesome nt kernel with an adapted linux kernel. of course, it won't be linux, and it won't work without “extensions”, but ms *will* “embrace” linux sooner or later. unless they're broken apart, they will bring linux to windows, not office to linux.
mainsoft's work is simply a preamble to gamble, carefully mapping out the necessary changes. and don't forget wine, which will also make this easy (and cheap) work for m$. – by md
|well (7:41pm est tue aug 22 2000)
bill gates is the greatest geek of them all. i mean…look at him!
what a geek – by satan
|mr insight (8:43pm est tue aug 22 2000)
m$ are the new lordz of the universe – check out the beginning of their mail address ”
1 micro$oft way
bills ho.” – by don't giva shit
|i disagree (8:57pm est tue aug 22 2000)
the only reason the windows family of os's has remained on desktops is because of wide device support & application availability. if m$ were busted up the os would have to stand on it's own 2 feet. why would m$ applications division suddenly start porting to other os's thereby weakening the os's grip?
be seems a great little os but what can you do with an os that has virtually no driver support & no few real apps? – by lurch
|office & linux (9:35pm est tue aug 22 2000)
i bet that if ms is broken up we will see “office” on linux, mac, beos and maybe even palm. after all the new “office” company will want as much of the market as possable…. that is the bill gates way. – by notsodumb
|linux the microsoft way (2:37am est wed aug 23 2000)
i'd bet we're gonna soon see “ms linux” of course, this is not just any old red-hat of suse, this is microsoft's own, so it has a few extensions (nt connectivity, some apis) and costs some money (the extensions make it copywriteable).
then, guess what? the office/linux works only on ms linux. pretty soon, suse and red-hat get driven out of business (or at least, that's ms' plan) – by joe
|hotmail (10:19am est wed aug 23 2000)
hotmail.com is now running windows 2000 server but before that. it was running linux. hotmail.com was bought by microsoft back in 1996 or 1997
p.s. now hotmail.com sucks! lots of porno and they sell your identity to spammerzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!
– by wambo
|ms linux (12:49pm est wed aug 23 2000)
of course ms won't make thier own version of linux. they like to pretend unix and mac don't even exist. they won't port any large apps to linux, ever. let's see – should microsoft spend resources porting its software so that a competitor can benefit? hmmm … – by grepgalaxia
|star office (4:12pm est wed aug 23 2000)
free, runs on linux, compatable with ms office.
incase html isn't enabled for news comments, here's that url.
http://www.sun.com/products/staroffice/5.2/ – by iamgeekhearmecode
|yea! (9:36pm est wed aug 23 2000)
what wonderfull news! i didn't want to see poor old linux tarnished with the buggy code ms releases… – by thermal creep
|you have that right! (9:55am est thu aug 24 2000)
wambo is so correct about hotmail. not soon after the ruined it by porting it to windows, it slowed down and the spam started. see list below.. these are recent addresses i had to block. if you noticed they made it convenient to block more then one address at a time soon after the sold us out. i was on of the fist 1000 hotmail users. not anymore.
email@example.com firstname.lastname@example.org email@example.com firstname.lastname@example.org email@example.com firstname.lastname@example.org email@example.com cvfrank firstname.lastname@example.org email@example.com firstname.lastname@example.org email@example.com khvictor firstname.lastname@example.org email@example.com firstname.lastname@example.org
plus 1,000 more. didn't want to polute the page. – by x-hotmail-user
|re: star office (10:23pm est thu aug 24 2000)
very good point iamgeekhearmecode. star office is complete solaris and linux compatible freeware. i know that mandrake linux 7.0 (which i would recomend for first time linux users) comes with a star office already installed. star office is a wonderfull inovation for fellow minicomputer users which now have an office suit completely compatible with ms office. even if it wasn't any good, i would always recommend sun microsystems software of ms. heh…. i would recommend sm over ms. you can interpret that different ways. sailor moon is much better than microsoft and alot sexier. anyone ever wonder where my name came from? heh – by grepgalaxia
|i know grepgalaxia (9:09am est fri aug 25 2000)
the meanning of grep (g()lobally search for regular expression (re) and (p)rint out the line.
bonus item: awk (alfred (a)ho, peter (w)einberger, brian (k)ernighan)
you are so correct about star office. it even allows you the ability to view and edit m$ office docs. we will stay clear of comparing m$ access or m$ sql server to let's say oracle or sybase. – by unixguy!
|i know unixguy! (12:36pm est fri aug 25 2000)
grep can't be explained in a single sentance, there are entire books on it. galaxia is from the anime bishojo senshi sailor moon starlights series in refferance to my possision at grep sailor moon* (www.sailormoon.org) which i would put to be one of the most secure site on the internet. you can read about our hardware here: http://www.sailormoon.org/about/hardware.html while our hardware isn't much to brag about, our software is. with a superhacker as the webmaster and codemaster heading the c&msql project team, we have a crack web staff. pico is our main program from which to code (our codemaster is compeletely against ides (both). as for linux office, who need it? we've already got a much more efficient and stable staroffice that is freeware. we are lucky that ms is keeping out of linux, it's a world they dare not touch.
how many microsoft development team leaders does it take to change a lightbulb?
m$ development team leader: change a lightbulb? why do that? can't we just wire in a new socket and hope noone notices the old one? – by grepgalaxia
|infectious waste (2:28am est mon aug 28 2000)
lord save us from the ms infection of linux.
– by wraith
|spam on hotmail (6:56am est sat sep 30 2000)
i've had a hotmail account for about 4 months. i have only given the address out to about 15 people and no companies or internet sites. i have recieved 0 pieces of spam. the only messages i have recieved are from friends of mine. no spam! – by steve
|microsoft linux (8:25am est thu jan 18 2001)
what is it ms linux? – by linux men