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Tuesday, November 16, 2004
Microsoft Buys Stake in Company Tying Linux to Windows
Microsoft came as close at it may ever get to supporting UNIX and Linux when it took a minority stake in integration vendor Vintela.
The Lindon, Utah-based Vintela has been cranking out software over the past few months to extend Windows-based authentication, management, and monitoring capabilities to UNIX, Linux, and Macintosh operating systems. Privately held Vintela plans to seek another round of funding early next year with an eye toward expanding research and development, sales, and support services.
The irony is that Vintela’s product set grew out of intellectual property the founders acquired from Caldera, which sued Microsoft for antitrust violations related to the desktop operating system DR-DOS.
Vintela over the past month has introduced four integration products that tie Microsoft features to the Linux, UNIX, and Macintosh platforms. Using MOM, IT administrators can manage those platform resources from the existing MOM administrator, operator, and Web consoles as well as the MOM reporting mechanism.
In September, the company introduced Vintela Group Policy, which extends the group policy features of Active Directory to UNIX and Linux desktops and servers.