Re: Things that Longhorn seems to be doing right

Stephen Satchell
2003-10-31T04:50:26Z

At 10:57 PM 10/29/2003 -0500, Scott Robert Ladd wrote:
>MySQL wouldn't need to be shoved into the kernel; a small, fast database
>engine (one of my professional specialities, BTW) could provide metadata
>services in a file system module. SQL is a bloated pig; an effective file
>system needs to be both useful and efficient, leading me to think that we
>should consider a more succinct query mechanism for any metadata-based
>file system.

I might add that Microsoft didn't invent the
database-in-the-operating-system concept -- IBM has had that concept for
years with the AS-400 line. Indeed, the announcement by Microsoft sounds
like MS is really courting the business marketplace; perhaps it is willing
to give up some markets to go after what it may view as its core
customers. How many science/engineer types willingly use Windows as other
than a window (pardon the pun) to a Unix-type system and as an
office-productivity tool?

One way Microsoft could "beat Linux" is to bolster its integration with
business mainframes, providing data layering tools designed for business
applications "out of the box" -- a task that Linux itself (the operating
system) could never, and should never, do. If some company or group wants
to put in the skull sweat and build a distribution that would do the deed,
with kernel mods and userland support, more power to them.

--
"People who seem to have had a new idea have often just stopped having an
old idea." -- Dr. Edwin H. Land