Having now attended the Linuxworld show, I am more convinced than ever that Apple did only what is ultimately inevitable if it is to survive in the mainstream business software market, acquiesced. I listened to many of my "REAL GEEK " associates talk, and it was enlightening in many ways.
Apple by it's own admission is rapidly approaching marketshare of about 5% of the desktop market. They are hoping that "Boot Camp" will let them increase this a bit more. It was done to appease those customers who work on PC's at work and have Apple products at home. Confusingly, stubbornly, they are also not urging Mac users to try it.
What many of my tech associates have told me is that while it may not be all that practical to do this, hard core techies won't be able to resist. And that reinforces my point, IT AIN'T PRACTICAL! They say that those who do have both platforms will be sitting in to develop their pet projects, but no real foothold of development should be expected.
Head off into the arena of Virtualization and you'll be better served. MS and Linux are lining up properly and the communities already understand their values. MS Virtual Server products were handed out to key folks at the affair. I have three copies and I'll be setting up several of my systems in the coming month or so for some real testing.
I have recommended to my clients that for the summer quarter they plan on devoting some serious resource time and money to their testing modes. I have told them that they need to be able to smoothly transition into this around the Christmas season at the earliest as this really looks like the best path to synergy for now. I say this because I'm sure that there will be some exec with a hard on proposing the next great move around yearend. I'll need hands on test data to either support, or buttress, the desires.
For now, I'd say look toward VMware for the reasons for MS market directions here. My buddy at Sabre and I will be having lunch in the next few weeks and I'll ask him about their plans also. I think the first vendor to develop a virtualization tech and management tools product with sound support will win here for now.
Cats and dogs living together? Microsoft acknowledging the need to blend with the rival Linux? Mass hysteria!!!
