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Boycott Novell

08.01.08

Never Let Them See You Sweat, Steve

Posted in Microsoft, Finance, GNU/Linux, Steve Ballmer, FOSS at 5:59 am by Roy Schestowitz

A couple of weeks ago we wrote about Microsoft’s financial pains. It had lost about 90 billion dollars in value this year, according to Bloomberg. Now the company must unleash a report to shareholders. Watch what it says:

“Linux […] gained some acceptance as competitive pressures lead PC OEMs to reduce costs and new, lower price PC form factors gain adoption. […] Nearly all computer manufacturers offer server hardware for the Linux operating system and many contribute to Linux operating system development. The competitive position of Linux has also benefited from the large number of compatible applications now produced by many leading commercial software developers and non-commercial software developers. […] Our Web application platform software competes with open source software such as Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP, and we compete against Java middleware such as JBoss, Geronimo and Spring Framework. […] The embedded operating system business is highly fragmented with many competitive offerings. Key competitors include IBM, Wind River, and versions of embeddable Linux from commercial Linux vendors such as Metrowerks and MontaVista Software.”

Microsoft loves to pretend that GNU/Linux is not a threat, but if cannot lie to its shareholders because that would be a felony. Some people totally miss the point, which is margin erosion. Back in February, Steve Ballmer said: “Open…Linux [is Microsoft’s biggest competitor]. I don’t want to say open source. Linux, certainly have to go with that.” █

Ballmer sweats
“What, Me worry?

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