Sure. Microsoft Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 is much easier to setup and you don’t have to hire a specialist like for Linux clusters but I still doubt its performance. Windows has been famous for slow performance and high overheads. Show me more proof and I’ll believe this article.

Microsoft Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 is Easier source

GoDaddy.com is to migrate its entire host-name portfolio onto Microsoft Solution for Windows-Based Hosting.

The Redmond press release proclaims:

REDMOND, Wash. — March 21, 2006 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that GoDaddy.com, the world’s leading domain name registrar, is transitioning approximately 4.5 million Web domains to be hosted on the Microsoft Solution for Windows-based Hosting. Upon completion of the migration, Go Daddy will have moved all its parked domains from Linux to the Windows platform.

“Our business is based on providing the best possible service at the lowest possible price. This strategy requires us to maximize all of our resources, particularly our technology assets,” said Warren Adelman, GoDaddy.com president and COO. “It was clear from all of the testing we’ve conducted that Microsoft provides an efficient and scalable operating platform, while also providing the performance needed to handle our extraordinary growth.”

Maybe the company should change its name to GoneDaddy as a farewell gesture to the OpenSource community.

In a press release today Microsoft has given its answer to the objections of the European Union’s Competition Commissioner to the company’ slowness in complying with EU demands.

“BRUSSELS, Belgium — Jan. 25, 2006 — Today, Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith announced Microsoft’s decision to license all the Windows Server source code for the technologies covered by the European Commission’s Decision of March 2004. The company is making this voluntary move in order to address categorically all of the issues raised by the Commission’s December 22, 2005 Statement of Objections.”

“Today we are putting our most valuable intellectual property on the table so we can put technical compliance issues to rest and move forward with a serious discussion about the substance of this case,” said Brad Smith, Microsoft Senior Vice President and General Counsel. “The Windows source code is the ultimate documentation of Windows Server technologies. With this step our goal is to resolve all questions about the sufficiency of our technical documentation.”

With today’s announcement, Microsoft is going far beyond the European Commission’s March 2004 decision and its legal obligations to provide companies with the technical specifications of its proprietary communications protocols.

Great buzz around the announcement in Paris that Microsoft is to submit its XML Office document format to an international standards board. The hope is to fast-track the process so that it will be in the public domain by the time Office 12 is released next year.

As with all things Redmondy though, the questions come thick and furious. When Talleyrand died, Napoleon was heard to remark, “What did he mean by that?” And so it is now. Are these formats really open? How do I know that there isn’t some sort of hidden Microsoft agenda? Why is Microsoft doing this? And those were questions from Microsoft’s own blogging evangelist, Robert Scoble.

It was also pointed out that by doing this the company may lose control of backward compatibility during the updating process which will transfer to a standards board. That compatibility is what persuades existing users to upgrade to newer versions of the Office suite. It also seems unlikely that Microsoft will fully support the OpenDocument format called for by the European Union in May 2004.

In the aftermath of the Massachusetts decision to back OpenDocuments, Microsoft must feel like a turkey having its feathers shot off one by one. Each small compromise serves to downgrade its proprietary formats as sources of revenue, so it must hope to expand the market to the extent that a smaller market share will still increase its income. It really is circling the wagons time at the House Bill Gates built.