Microsoft benchmarks step up Linux assault
InfoWorld | at | by Mike
Stepping up its campaign against the Linux operating system, Microsoft on Thursday released file and Web serving benchmark results that, it claims, show that Linux on the mainframe lags behind Windows 2003 on Intel systems in terms of performance for the money.
One industry observer welcomed Microsoft's benchmark numbers. "God help me for saying this, but I think Microsoft has made a genuine contribution here," said Rudy de Haas, an IT consultant based in Kitchener, Ontario, who has written about Linux's performance on the mainframe under the pseudonym Paul Murphy.
De Haas has criticized IBM in the past for not providing information on Linux's mainframe performance. The numbers released Thursday, though they did not come from an ideal source, were significant, he said. "There are several things you could use to raise questions about what (Microsoft) did, but the real bottom line is that no one else has done it."