Date: 29 Jan 2004 08:21:12 -0000
From: Subbiah Gunasekaran
Microsoft Offers Linux-Interoperability Software For Free Jan. 13, 2004
Services For Unix 3.5 also features improved performance and broader
support for Posix APIs.
By John Foley
Microsoft has decided to drop the $99 licensing fee previously required
for its Services For Unix software and plans to make a new version of the
interoperability product available this week at no cost on its Web site.
Services For Unix is a subsystem of Unix APIs and development and
administration tools intended to help businesses migrate Unix or Linux
applications to Windows computers or create heterogeneous environments
where the operating systems coexist. SFU version 3.5, to be available
Thursday, will come with performance improvements and new features that
make it better at both of those functions, yet Microsoft officials say the
price change represents a strategy shift that's equally important. "The
big news on this release, we think, is that it's free," says Dennis
Oldroyd, a director with Microsoft's Windows server group.
Microsoft had developed a reputation among some customers for not doing
enough to help them deal with the growing number of mixed computing
environments. In a survey last fall by InformationWeek Research, more
than half of the 400 business-technology professionals who responded said
Windows-Linux interoperability was a problem, and 87% were of the opinion
that Microsoft was leaving the interoperability work to others.
"The real driver behind this [pricing] change is this interoperability
issue," Oldroyd says. "We want Windows to be the best platform for
interoperability."
The three main components of SFU--Unix's Network File System and Network
Identity Service and Microsoft's Interix layer of Posix APIs--have all
been tuned for better performance, with some commands running 50% faster,
Oldroyd says. SFU 3.5 also features first-time support for P-Threads (for
Posix-compliant multithreaded applications), a broader set of Posix APIs,
and updated utilities and libraries.
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=17300643
