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Is Computer Associates contemplating dumping Windows?
A WHILE BACK, we told you that IBM would be dumping Windows on the desktop, and a month later, guess what, it started this process.
If you have been following Microsoft attempts to hold onto counties, cities, states, governmental bodies, governments, corporations and people, you know the headlines have gone from talk to action.
The governments that are starting to move over tend to be mostly poorer countries, or ones with large, largely computer-free populaces. Brazil and China are good examples of this trend. In those places, Linux adoption has been picking up steam to the point that if a second world country told MS to take a hike, it would hardly rate a Slashdot story on a slow day. .
In the corporate and governmental sectors, the waffling is a little more extreme. Whether it is large slush fund discounts, corporate loyalty, or simply that MS has a better solution, people aren't jumping as fast. For every 10 headlines about an organisation jumping ship, there are 5 more explaining why they didn't defect. Fair enough.
IBM was the first of these to wave goodbye, and I have the feeling that even Microsoft shelling out 100% discounts with Ballmer delivering the CDs in a pink tutu is not enough for Big Blue to turn the ship around. The open question is whether it is the start of a corporate exodus, or an isolated incident.
I was leaning toward isolated incident with large discounts negotiated on the next licensing agreement, when I got one of those "guess what" e-mails. This one wasn't from an anonymous source with bad spelng, but from someone I put a good deal of faith in. While a bit light on details, it said that Computer Associates (CA) is seriously considering a jump to the tuxedoed side. Now, CA is a close ally of MS, and this could either be a dangerous negotiating tactic, or a huge Fortune 500 portent. If it's true...
Source:
The INQ!!!
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