传统观念认为，Linux应用程序开发人员往往是围绕在发行版厂商周围的，比如红帽、novell和Canonical（Ubuntu母公司）。但是现在来自Cisco的一项举措可能使得目前的格局有所改变。因为从去年开始，Cisco为他的统一通信产品举行了一个基于开源的软件设计大赛，主要的目标就是吸引Linux平台的开源软件开发人员。

这个名为“应用扩展平台开发者大赛”的比赛是由Cisc0发起的，从去年10月份开始，Cisco的AXP是一个基于Linux的开发平台，而这个AXP平台正是Cisco的集成服务路由设备的软件基础。所以说这个开发平台很重要，因为它是Cisco和微软的统一通信大战的一个重要砝码。Cisco推广他的统一通信，是基于网络设备，而微软的统一通信（微软自己称统一沟通），作为统一通信整体的解决方案，cisco和微软谁也离不开谁，但是Cisco在尝试用基于Linux的软件的来构建他的统一通信解决方案。

自从去年10月份开始，这个活动就在Linux开发者社区引起了不小的轰动，到目前为止，cisco已经收到来自75个国家和地区，超过900个的参赛作品，形式非常喜人。目前cisco已经宣布了***阶段获得最终大奖提名的10位开发者名单。第二阶段即将开始。Cisco将继续和微软较劲到底？

Conventional wisdom says Linux application developers are most cozy with distribution specialists like Red Hat, Novell and Canonical. But the folks at Cisco Systems seem to be getting tighter with the Linux developer community, thanks to the so-called AXP (Application eXtension Platform) developer contest. Here’s the scoop from The VAR Guy.

Our resident blogger has been tracking the AXP “Think Inside the Box” contest since November 2008. AXP is a Linux-based application development platform for Cisco’s Integrated Services Routers (ISRs). AXP is particularly critical to the unified communications showdown between Cisco and Microsoft. While Microsoft maintains a Windows-centric view of unified communications, Cisco is promoting network-centric applications development.

Toward that end, Cisco launched the AXP contest to attract more developers to its unified communications and unified computing efforts. The results appear promising: Cisco received roughly 900 AXP contest applications from 75 different countries, according to a company spokeswoman. Now, Cisco has announced the 10 AXP developer finalists from Phase 1 of the contest. Those finalists now move into Phase 2 of the contest.
Chipping Away At Windows?

The VAR Guy isn’t suggesting that the AXP contest will topple Microsoft’s massive channel of independent software vendors (ISVs). But the growth of Linux-centric server applications and network-centric applications is undeniable.

A few examples:

    * Roughly 40,000 professionals are now certified on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
    * Novell has introduced new Mono code that allows SUSE Linux to run Microsoft .Net applications.
    * Cisco’s AXP contest coupled with the Application-Oriented Networking (AON) push paves the way for more network-centric services.

But is Cisco really succeeding in its efforts to recruit Linux developers to AXP? The VAR Guy will poke around a bit during the Cisco Partner Summit 2009, starting June 2 in Boston.

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