We all know Microsoft views Linux as a serious threat and will do just about anything to discourage its use. But why would application vendors who actually face competition from Microsoft help it out in this regard? That's what one reader was wondering after discovering that his customers could no longer use a Linux server with their favorite accounting packages.
"I have two clients using multi-user network accounting packages," the reader wrote. "One uses Quickbooks, the other uses Peachtree. In both cases upgrades to newer versions of each accounting package required I set up either a peer system or a dedicated server with Windows, and move away from the Linux servers I'd set up for both. The reason? Both Intuit and Sage Software now use .NET to develop these applications, and both are, according to their support staff, complying with Microsoft standards for their backend database components -- components which won't work on non-Microsoft network servers."