Microsoft’s .Net initiative is the IT equivalent of asbestos, while Linux provides customers with a safe alternative, according to PeopleSoft’s president and chief executive Craig Conway.

But, he claimed to an audience of more than 200 customers and partners at its 2003 Leadership Summit in Sydney, Australia, the application supplier’s stance was not so much anti-Microsoft as pro-choice. “The answer to the death grip Microsoft has on the industry is an alternative operating system. That’s why PeopleSoft has decided to port all our applications to Linux,” Conway continued.

He added that the open source operating environment now boasts broad enough support to be used for key business applications, a statement that is reflected in the vendor’s decision to release all 170 of its packages on Linux.

In contrast, however, Conway warned that .Net will not enable companies to control costs related to their enterprise applications because the assumption is that the code will run on PCs.

“Running enterprise software on a PC is a known bad thing. It’s like asbestos. .Net is a home formula to make your own asbestos. PeopleSoft is absolutely convinced enterprise software should not be resident on PCs,” he said.