Unix in Redmond

[Frank Ramsay]

I read this earlier today.  I don't know now much of this
to believe.  We all know they are running some Unix (Hotmail)
but there is no proof offered in the article (which would be 
better described as a gossip column)  Of course we all
_want_ to believe this so it's hard not to

> Here's an excerpt from Bob Cringely's article in InforWorld last Friday.
> The full article is at
> 
>     http://www.InfoWorld.com/articles/op/xml/00/08/28/000828opcringe.xml
> 
> ********
> 
> [deleted]
> 
> Unix in Redmond
> 
> I was going to avoid writing about Microsoft this week, but how could
> I resist sharing these tidbits from ex-Microsofties? These former    
> Microsoft employees have written in to set the record straight about
> what's really going on behind the scenes at a few of the software
> giant's subsidiaries.
> 
> When Microsoft acquired Linkexchange (now bCentral), company
> officials tried to get rid of Oracle databases in favor of the
> company's own SQL Server.
> 
> "Some of the best folks from Redmond came down to make the change,
> but after two or three months they gave up and switched back to
> Oracle on Solaris, where it remains today," this reader wrote.
> 
> Another former bCentral employee says Microsoft mentions Linux in its
> help-wanted ads for bCentral just to lure unsuspecting enthusiasts to
> come work there. The OSes in place were primarily FreeBSD, BSD/OS,
> and Solaris. That is, until Microsoft tried to migrate more of the  
> systems to Windows NT and 2000.
> 
> Another former bCentral employee says Microsoft mentions Linux in its
> help-wanted ads for bCentral just to lure unsuspecting enthusiasts to
> come work there. The OSes in place were primarily FreeBSD, BSD/OS,
> and Solaris. That is, until Microsoft tried to migrate more of the   
> systems to Windows NT and 2000.
> 
> According to this source, Microsoft had to quadruple the number of
> servers when it moved to its own operating systems.
> 
> For the most part, according to our ex-Microsoftie, the company's
> money-making Web properties are all based around Unix, with Hotmail
> 99 being 99 percent FreeBSD, MSN using some Apache on Solaris,
> bCentral ad servers on 100 percent FreeBSD, and WebTV pretty much 
> entirely Solaris.
> 
> "Internally when Windows 2000 was announced, people were told not
> to even think about using it for production because it was too 
> unstable," says this ex-Microsoftie. 
> 
> So much for mature software written by professionals. It seems that,
> internally, Microsoft prefers the stuff "written by college kids
> in their basements."
> 
> [deleted]
> 
> --
> John Abreau / Executive Director, Boston Linux & Unix 
> ICQ#28611923 / AIM abreauj / Email jabr at blu.org
> 
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