Bill Hilf blog attracts anti-Microsoft posters

Stan Beer
Saturday, 08 April 2006 06:29

IT Industry - Development

This article is also available here 

Also see 
Microsoft’s Hilf says Windows more reliable than Linux
and don't miss 
Microsoft pulls Hilf from LinuxWorld – cracks in the dam?
and
Office 2007 and Vista not automatic selections: analyst

Microsoft's Linux expert has launched a company sanctioned blog in an outreach attempt to the Open Source community but all it seems to attract are irate anti-Microsoft posters.

Hilf says the unmoderated blog called Port 25 at http://port25.technet.com/archive/2006/03/28/8.aspx is intended to promote open communications between his interoperability team and the Ipne Source community. "As someone who has many hours at the command line, debugging things such as protocol states (LISTENING?) and getting software and servers working to provide some type of service, the concept of server ports and being open is well engrained in how I and the team here in our lab think about communications – so we thought it was applicable to how we want to start the dialogue around this subject.  I guess it just took a Slashdot interview and a couple thousand emails (and consistent nudging from friends) to really drive the point home that having a participative discussion around OSS and Microsoft technologies is a good thing, not –as many people may believe- something we want to ‘hide’ or shy away from."

Despite Hilf's stated good intentions, however, a quick perusal of the blog, which commenced on 28 March, shows that the posts are almost exclusively anti-Microsoft rants by unimpressed users.

For example: "I administer the network for a small company. Our network is a mix of RedHat and CentOS installations, as well as OpenBSD sitting out in my DMZ's. I have Windows desktops and they run well enough (WSUS is a godsend), but here's the rub. I have two Windows servers on the network and they constantly need rebooting. My Linux boxes run under heavy load for months and years at a time, my Windows servers last a week before needing a "pre-emptive reboot". Maybe it's MS's fault, maybe it's the software I'm running on top of it, maybe its both, all I know is that my servers have to just work 24x7 and I don't get that with Microsoft products. Hopefully this forum will help you guys handle that instead of just being a marketing ploy/PR spin like I think it is." And: "So, there will be much more to discuss, debate and learn from together" - WHAT!?  There is nothing to discuss here, nothing to say, nothing to do, and nothing but marketing crap from MSFT.  You don't even run this web server on an open source alternative.  Too much, too little, too late."

If the intention of Microsoft with the Port 25 blog was to weed out all the complaints that both Microsoft and non-Microsoft users have with the company, its products and its philosophies, then it appears to have done a masterful job.