anti-Unix campaign good for Apple?
M$ is evidently trying to position itself in that sweet spot where an enterprise can enjoy tremendous flexibility, scalability, reliability, and availability without having to employ many high-paid IT gurus.
The sweet spot is tough to nail; I believe. Flexibility (and scalability) tend to be more complex than a rigid, constrained system that requires less in the way of high-paid IT gurus. Obviously, there's a trade-off that software and hardware makers are looking to overcome whereby an enterprise gets all of the flexibility and capability without the incredible complexity that requires an army of IT gurus.
So, M$ is attacking the nix's because, right or wrong, they are PERCEIVED to be very complex. So, M$ and Unisys (why Unisys?) are looking to exploit this perception and other negative ones.
At the same time, M$ is trying to overcome its poor reputation for security and reliability/availability by that old tried and true business tactic, if you can't make your widget better right away or ever, spend millions of dollars on an advertising campaign that asserts that 'quality is job one'. Bill Gates recently asserted that 'security' is M$'s number one priority.
It worked for Chrysler in a big way!!! Granted, Chrysler's quality assurance did improve significantly but it took considerable time. So, the advertising with lee Iaococa (SP?) bought a more positive perception amongst auto consumers well before quality actually improved. (I am not asserting the Chrysler products are top of the line quality cars, BTW.)
Well, Apple has a reputation for making flexible, capable, powerful things simple and low-cost to use. Unix has a reputation for reliability, availability, scalability, and security. OS X is Apple simplicity on Unix. The 'power of Unix and the ease of use' of Apple.
This represents a tremendous opportunity for Apple, if Apple has the resources to make OS X Server and the PowerMac Server line more enterprise-ready.
For all of M$'s many flaws, when it comes to marketing, M$ does nothing half-assed. M$ can make a significant impact on market perception. And, Apple may be able to ride the wave while M$ ultimately wipes out.
Point in fact, however, as I understand Apple's priorities, aside from the consumer, education, and graphics segments, it is not targeting enterprise servers per say, rather it is targeting workstations in the enterprise. So, this may be an opportunity that Apple lacks the resources to exploit. Maybe Apple could accomplish the same with some strategic partnerships with major Unix server application vendors?
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