Does Linux Need Microsoft?

Some folks in the open source movement like to bash Microsoft. Some folks in the Apple quarter like to bash Microsoft. Even some folks in the Microsoft quarter like to bash Microsoft.

But let us pause from our bashing and ask if we need Microsoft.

I think that we do.

Microsoft serves the Linux community by setting the hardware standard and driving computers to commodities. In the pre-cambrian era (before the introduction of the IBM PC), there were multiple platforms and CP/M set a tenous standard for disk I/O. (And only disk I/O. For terminals and printers, you were on your own. Networks were not even on the PC horizon.)

IBM set the hardware and software standard in 1981, with the IBM PC and its built-in BIOS. But IBM lost its leadership in 1987 with the introduction of the PS/2 line and Compaq's competing Deskpro 386 PCs. IBM's new line was too different and Compaq stepped up and set the hardware platform. Software, though, was set by Microsoft and its lock on PC-DOS and MS-DOS.

Microsoft gained power with Windows and set the software and hardware standard, something that it still does today. (The smartphones, netbooks, and slates are commercial successes, but they have not shifted PC architectures.)

As distasteful as it may be for Linux fans to admit, Linux owes its success to the standard, commodity hardware that Microsoft created. Linux needs Microsoft as its galactic center, something to revolve around. The PC standard lets Linux act as a parasite, taking advantage of a mostly uniform environment.

The commoditization of PCs, combined with higher requirements for new operating systems has provided a large supply of cheap, working, available equipment. I suspect that companies of every size have old PCs sitting in corners, unable to use the latest Windows and Microsoft applications. These PCs are the perfect place to experiment with Linux for little investment.

There are many reasons that Linux is successful. Reliability, availability of source code, multiple distributions for different needs, and a cute mascot have all helped. But it was Microsoft that made the environment which allows Linux to exist.