Will Open Source World Welcome Microsoft-Yahoo Combo?

Microsoft has confirmed that it’s seeking to acquire Yahoo! Some folks — you know, the open source crowd — will likely bash a proposed Microsoft-Yahoo combo. The VAR Guy, however, is willing to give Microsoft a chance to explain the proposed business combo. Here’s why.

First, a little background. Search engine giants like Google and Yahoo rely heavily on Linux, the LAMP stack and custom open source projects. And Microsoft has been trying to re-invent the LAMP stack with WAMP (Windows, Apache, MySQL, and related tools), notes Mary Jo Foley’s Microsoft Watch blog.

The VAR Guy isn’t ready to bash a Microsoft-Yahoo combo. For all of Microsoft’s weak offerings (exhibit 1: Windows Vista), the software giant has also done a lot of good in the market. Lots of folks forget that Windows NT and SQL Server revolutionized server software pricing models in the 1990s, deeply undercutting the world of RISC-based servers running Unix and Oracle.

So for a moment, open source folks, let’s not pile on Microsoft. Give the company a chance to explain what it plans to do with Yahoo. The VAR Guy is particularly curious about how Zimbra — the open source email platform Yahoo acquired in September 2007 — will operate under Microsoft. The VAR Guy had mixed emotions when Yahoo purchased Zimbra.

Thousands of Web sites are going to try to advance the Microsoft-Yahoo story today. But The VAR Guy is going to sit back and relax on this one.

Kudos to the New York Post for breaking the story. Aggressive Web sites like TechCrunch tipped their hats to the Post this morning for writing the exclusive piece. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has since confirmed that the software giant wants to acquire Yahoo for nearly $50 billion.