Double plus good!

"He said that by only focusing on Windows, the company can deliver more innovation per release in the future."

What does that even mean?

ESP, now with 20% more innovation!*

* Unverifiable claim, may not be true.

Is anyone suprised?

Microsoft buys company... company drops its Linux/Unix software. Just like when Apple a acquires a company... they discontinue the Widows versions of its software. Time and time again.. it's no surprise.

Wake me up when Microsoft start playing the Apple game of trying to tie software to hardware. When they launch their "Microsoft Certified Hardware" scheme and only permit Windows to be used with Microsoft-labelled or Microsoft certified hardware (inc. peripherals). Naturally they would only certify the hardware of vendors who promise to never provide drivers or support for Linux or Unix platforms. Then, like Apple they could go around suing anyone who installs Windows on computers that are not Microsoft-labelled or certified.

A leopard never changes it's spots

Microshaft up to their old nasty business practices again

Remember Fox Software

Microsoft buy up innovative small companies, rip off the technology and leave people who have invested time and money in those products high and dry.

Its not business its just bloody mindless bullying.

Nuff said

'He also said Microsoft is "investing in interoperability" ...'

Wow.

And the moral of this story is:

If Microsoft buys any company with a Linux product that you are using. It is time for you to find another product.

Or just insist on OSS for everything. :)

interoperability? I'm sure that is really part of their plan.

that is just SOOOOoooo over used by Microsoft PR these days it's funny. I really love when they use that when talking about open source software. You know the stuff, where the source code is 100% open for viewing so there's nothing hidden or hiding.

Interoperability in the Microsoft dictionary means it all resides in Microsoft code and if not it is tied to some strange patent issue which makes you wonder when they'll pull the rug out from under you.

No Windows product is safe from this because Microsoft wants everything to run on Windows or it does not run.

Paris because if you don't do it her way, she leaves.

Can't we all...

Just get along???

Well that's certainly one way to go about it

Oh and I so notice the diplomatic, "Other Operating Systems" accolade, in reference to that domain including Linux. Marketards beware, Microsoft is moving on objective.....

P.S. @Henry Wertz 1: I presume, sir, that you had meant to refer to Apache Lucene. Cheers.

@David Ramsey...

...yes it is business.

The same goes for all those whinging bastards moaning about Cadburys.

No one is FORCING them to sell (well occasionally the receivers will, but thats totally diferrent). Microsoft offered a shitload of cash. the owners added up the figures in there head (lets see..yes thats a tidy profit) and sold, they knew full well what would happen, but at the end of the day, they sold it for a big fat profit, like any sensible business person would do.

So stop being a moron and learn about the business world.

Now would any Linux people like to pay be £1millon to say that MS are evil, that I've just talked utter bollocks and that we all should live in tents and grow beards? Willing to negotiate.

@Kristian B

"When they launch their "Microsoft Certified Hardware" scheme and only permit Windows to be used with Microsoft-labelled or Microsoft certified hardware (inc. peripherals). Naturally they would only certify the hardware of vendors who promise to never provide drivers or support for Linux or Unix platforms. "

Consider it done. I think you need to look up "Paladium" or "Trusted computing." this is DRM territory. However actually putting out major hardware with the MS logo on is unlikely. Microsoft's *only* friends are hardware suppliers. MS gives them the 50% (and Office) OS bloat needed to justify scrapping PC's every 18-21 months.

"we recognize that our future focus on Windows means change.,"

So I could choose to stick with you and not really know if this is just the first of many painful changes to come OR I can change away from this product altogether, just once and avoid unnecessary IT expenditure in the future.... tough one that!!

Cross platform

for Microsoft, the definition is capable of running on the current product and the previous product. That is it...

and as for Microsoft dropping development on a Linux based product in order to increase innovation... hahahahahahahahahahahahahah

Microsoft are completely incapable of innovating anything except inventive new FUD...

Typical Microsoft business chess move...

Sounds like another case of Embrace, Extend and Extinguish to ultimately help boost Windows by attempting to push some corporate customers of Linux back towards Windows.

Another layer of FAST FAIL

Aside from FAST's primary product not being "all that" as some people used to say - various other proprietary search vendors were doing similar stuff in the late 1990s, and yes, those vendors also ran Internet search engines - I'm sure that all the clueless organisations who bought FAST's products and who reassured themselves that it was still a good thing after the Microsoft takeover are now having strategy meetings and fretting about migrations and reliability and server licences and stuff that they could have avoided if they'd bothered to use something even marginally more open and better maintained (in the corporate sense).

I'm sure that the Windows-only regime is also a bitter pill for any of the FAST engineers who haven't already quit, too, but engineering morale is usually a secondary consideration in such businesses. Meanwhile, I wonder if the Norwegian prosecutors have bothered to pick up the case of the misreported financials that went on before the Microsoft acquisition, or whether it's still not worth getting out of bed for.

In any case, FAST customers can just see this as Microsoft tightening the screws as was always going to happen. Many of them run Internet services that I'm sure will eventually end up competing with Microsoft's own offerings, so it shouldn't come as a surprise, but given the levels of cluelessness in the average Internet business's management team, it probably will.

Lucene? Alternatives?

Is it worth mentioning that Autonomy's IDOL Server also continues to run on Linux and Unix platforms - though not open source?

Oops, wrong FAST

Thought at first you meant the Fucking Arseholes and Stupid Tossers. Had a visit from them once, possibly acting on a tip-off from our supplier (we bought in enough parts to make 20 PCs for our office, and one copy of Windows XP for someone else).

The look on the guy's face when I said we did nothing to stop staff copying software from their workstations {then running Mandrake Community Edition, with a web browser and OpenOffice.org: everything on them was Open Source} and we would in fact encourage it, was *priceless*.