Microsoft claims Linux 'at end of life cycle'

Linux will soon become obselete, Microsoft's Russian president has claimed.

Nikolai Pryanishnikov was quoted in a CNews article, published on Thursday, that covered Russia's efforts to create a national Linux-based operating system. According to a Google translation of the open source publication's article, Pryanishnikov also said Microsoft "supports technological neutrality" and an operating system should be chosen for its economic efficiency, safety and practicality, not for "ideological considerations".

Pryanishnikov said it would not be effective to "create an analogue of the existing OS, which will take huge amounts of money and time".

"We must bear in mind that Linux is not a Russian OS and, moreover, is at the end of its life cycle," he added.

Noted open source advocate Glyn Moody wrote in a Thursday blog post that this comment was "rather rich" as Microsoft was losing market share while Linux becomes increasingly popular. "I'd wager that variants of Linux will be around rather longer than Windows," he wrote.