Microsoft at Linuxworld, offering olive branch
Tuesday August 13, 6:59 pm Eastern Time
Reuters Company News
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp.(NasdaqNM:MSFT - News) has shown up in what may be the last place it was expected.
The dominant software maker has set up shop, in a very modest way, at Linuxworld, the annual gathering of developers and users of the upstart Linux operating language.
Linux lovers generally don't like Microsoft, accusing it of building a closed system that does not work well with other software.
"Down on your left. It's where the chicken wire is," joked one attendee, giving directions to Microsoft's unassuming booth, located toward the back of a giant hall.
Manned by a handful of presenters, the booth is almost invisible compared with huge stands under massive hanging signs mounted by Hewlett-Packard Co, International Business Machines Corp, and others.
Microsoft Senior Director Peter Houston said the company was trying to show it was committed to dialogue with Linux users.
The booth is also the official debut at Linuxworld of Microsoft, which makes the operating system for most of the personal computers in the world, and now faces small but growing pressure from Linux.
Scott McNealy, chief executive of computer maker Sun Microsystems Inc.(NasdaqNM:SUNW - News), facing scrutiny himself as he introduced Sun's first general purpose Linux computer, joked "The enemy of my enemy is my friend, and I hate Microsoft."
He acknowledges Microsoft was keeping a low profile. "The Microsoft booth is hard to find and always closed," he said.
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