Microsoft hits jackpot ahead of Linux

Gaming giant Tattersalls has chosen to abandon Linux as it moves ahead with a $43 million project to streamline its multi-state Maxgaming poker machine business.

The open source operating system has a strong presence across the 4,000 venues that comprise Tattersall's Maxgaming business throughout Queensland, NSW and the Northern Territory. However, chief information officer Stephen Lawrie said the company planned to consolidate its gaming products on a new platform built around Microsoft products.

Mr Lawrie said recent mergers with interstate gaming operations had left Maxgaming with a complicated set of software licenses that made retaining any one of the four platforms it plans to replace impractical.

"We didn't try to tackle that because of the different issues about where we were licensed to have what software. It was generally a bit of a mixed lot because of the heritage of the merger," Mr Lawrie said.

http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,22361739-15306,00.html