Description
Netcraft, an Internet services company based in Bath, England, has gathered data which suggest that Microsoft London Internet Data Center distributes Microsoft content in London using Linux servers.

If the data proves to be correct it would suggest that Microsoft's presence on the Internet relies heavily on the open source OS and its reputation as a stable system providing long uptimes. The simple point of this is that Microsoft uses Akamai Technologies' Internet-wide cacheing system to deliver content to surfers. Akamai, in order to provide the best possible service, have chosen to run Linux.

Netcraft spokesman, Mike Prettejohn claims that the cacheing system is used by the biggest and most well-known Web companies. They would have a hard job avoiding Linux, he said. The spokesman also commented on the necessity of using Linux when planning to reliably deliver content over the Internet while claiming that Microsoft do not offer any similar technology.

Microsoft have refused to comment but you can find the full stats by following the download link bellow.
http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/hosted...13.199.159.255

Of course, why would they use something as unstable as their own product. I bet Bill himself has a Linux based PC on his desktop! They also widely use an IBM platform based on the IBM/Motorola PPC (RISC) cpu, the AS/400. When I worked with them, you only had to restart the box when installing hardware, and some minor config changes. In 1998 we had a 4-way processor box with 1/2 GB memory and 75 GB worth of SCSI disks with RAID-5, and that was just for the developers!