According to a blog post from Microsoft Distinguished Engineer and CTO, FAST Bjørn Olstad, the 2010 products will be the last to have a search core that runs on Linux and UNIX.

Being involved in Apache Solr and the newly formed Lucene Connectors Framework (LCF) project, I’m very interested in the implications. Undoubtedly, at least some FAST customers will not be happy with this decision and will want to switch to something which can still run on Linux/UNIX.

I believe that this is a great opportunity for the Apache Solr/LCF combo. Perhaps, the newly proposed Apache Spatial Information Systems (SIS) will help as well. Of course, this is big news for Lucid Imagination, Sematext and other companies as well who offer consultancy, training and support for Lucene/Solr.

I’d like to ask people who have used FAST in the past, what would it take for Lucene/Solr/LCF to fill the gap?