Catalog > Other > Why servers of msmobiles.com are not powered by Microsoft technologies?
Why servers of msmobiles.com are not powered by Microsoft technologies?
Several people ask us this question all over again and again, so it may be worthwhile to answer it once and for all.
What is the problem? The problem is that some people have fanatical approach to various technologies: they think that if we are fans of Microsoft powered cell phones then we should prefer to use for our servers Microsoft Windows Server (like for example NT, 2000 or 2003) instead of Unix (like for example Linux, BSD Unix or AIX). We are therefore being accused of amateurishness and lack of consistency in our convinctions.
Well, we must admit that servers of msmobiles.com are not powered by Microsoft technologies! In fact the main server of msmobiles.com is powered by BSD Unix operating system (the same that is the basis of Mac OS X) and uses PHP technology for content management system (CMS). Our other helper server (it handles only tiny part of overall tasks and web traffic - less than 1%) is powered by Suse Linux and uses server-side Java technology (EJB, JSP) for performing various tasks and for serving content.
So why we, being so big fans of Microsoft powered cell phones, donīt use Microsoft technologies to power our servers? Short answer is simple: because we deliberately selected non-Microsoft technologies to underline one simple fact of life: Microsoft doesnīt support msmobiles.com in any way whatsoever! Why is that? Well, some employees of Microsoft hold a grudge against us because our independent journalism and our independent opinions expressed in our stories, stories that were pointing out some mistakes of Microsoft - instead of just praising Microsoft as some other websites, mainly owned by Microsoft MVP, are practicing. Shortly speaking: we are (sometimes, very rarely) critical towards Microsoft, so Microsoft doesnīt support us, despite the fact that msmobiles.com website provides plenty of interesting content and support for end users of Microsoft powered cellphones. Despite the fact that web traffic of msmobiles.com (and thus number of users/readers) is much bigger (according to independent objective meter available at Alexa) than of some other websites that Microsoft is supporting heavily.
Please note also: some other websites about Windows Mobile and about Microsoft powered cellphones, despite being heavily supported by Microsoft still donīt use Microsoft technologies to power their servers and to power their content management systems (CMS).
To give you idea what kind of support Microsoft offers to private websites about Windows Mobile - support that we donīt receive from Microsoft to any extend - that we donīt receive from Microsoft at all, here is a list of such things:
Microsoft awards MVP title to owner of the website. Having MVP means direct access to Microsoftī information and a lot of freebies, for example covering costs of travelling to Seattle, USA, for summits and meetings. Example: PPCW.net
Microsoft awards MVP titles to contributors and editors of given website (not-owners). Example: website with "Thoughts" in name owned by Jason Dunn - where Microsoft awarded MVP title to 9 (NINE!!!) editors/contributors writing for this site.
Microsoft invites editor of given website to a so called "Mobius conference for webmasters and editors" - an invite-only event where Microsoft invites also people writing for websites about non-Microsoft technologies (like Symbian, Palm, mobile Linux). Microsoft covers costs of traveling and lodging for such an invited editor and gives him a bag with goodies for free (including cellphones, PDAs - all for free). Example: editor and owner of AllAboutSymbian.com .
Microsoft places links from some web pages located at the Internet domains ".microsoft.com" and/or ".msdn" to given website, that it thus is supporting. In other words: Microsoft links to a website that it supports. Example: editor of 4Smartphone.dk .
Microsoft sends free gifts for testing purposes - software and hardware. Example: Motorola smartphone (hardware) received from Microsoft by an editor of Geek.com .
in case of some websites Microsoft in order to "cover server and web traffic costs" is transfering money to the owner of the website. Example: Jason Dunn and his Thoughts website who got several thousands dollars of such financial support from Microsoft.
Remember: nothing from above list of things that Microsoft does to support webmasters is available to msmobiles.com so we hope that now you understand better why we donīt use Microsoft technologies to power our servers. If you still would have questions or remarks regarding this topic, please feel free to use our (fully anonymous) web contact form here or use simply our email address mentioned there if you wish to obtain personal answer to your feedback.
Feedback from readers and answers to it:
Itīs really a shame that you are using BSD/Linux just to "irritate Microsoft", and
that if Microsoft changes their mind, you will *loose time* porting your web to
Microsoft.
I hoped, before reading your article, that you may have thought as BSD or Linux as
rather *superior* in terms of technology, security and maintenance, not in terms of
odd revange to Microsoft.
Answer: BSD and Linux are cheaper (free) and thus superior in terms of maintenance.
Regarding technology and security we donīt believe in superiority of one technology
over another. Microsoft doesnīt support us (i.e. msmobiles.com) at all, despite
us very heavily promoting Microsoft mobile products and supporting users of these
products so thatīs why we donīt feel compelled to use Microsoft powered servers. The
fact is that our servers run on BSD Unix and Suse Linux and it speaks for itself! Draw your own conclusions...
Certainly money is not a deciding factor for us, as we already own Windows Server 2003 as you can see on this picture:
... where you can observe Microsoft Smartphone to the left and an original, legal, disc with Windows Server 2003.
Contrary to Nostradamus we believe that future is not written yet. In other words: if Microsoft would start supporting us with at least 2 out of above mentioned points we will transfer our content to Microsoft Windows 2003 servers and port our content management system (CMS) to ASP .NET ...
