Trip Down Memory Lane Department -
While I was an Engineer at the (then) NYNEX corp., I participated in a meeting with Bell Atlantic personnel regarding the computers to be used in the SS7 network. One of the "Bell Titanic" employees made a statement that the soon-to-be-Verizon company should "Just use Windows like everyone else". I responded that I would oppose the introduction of any Microsoft operating system into any mission-critical application.
Unix, which is the inspiration for Linux, was invented at Bell Labs, and it has been used extensively in central-office control computers for decades. AT&T's choice is, therefore, no surprise: the company has decided to go open-source for things which *have* to work.
Bill Horne
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BY KAVITA IYER
Microsoft Windows loses to Ubuntu Linux, as AT&T chooses Ubuntu for its network and cloud operations
Even though Linux may not be performing well in the desktop market, it however owns the two most important markets without any doubt, which are servers and smartphones. On one hand, where PC sales are going down, on the other, sales of Android phones are on the rise which it capturing a major share of the market. While everyone is spending less time on Windows computers, there are more than happy to be glued to their phones, which are likely powered by the Linux kernel.
AT&T, one of the largest cellular providers has side-lined Microsoft?s Windows and instead opted for Canonical and Ubuntu to power its network, cloud and enterprise applications, making this one of the most important collaborations for the creators of the Linux distribution. Canonical will provide continued engineering support too