Microsoft's Ballmer Sees Free Software as Enemy No. 1
by Volker Weber
Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Steve Ballmer has identified a roadblock to increased sales growth at the world's largest software maker: Linux and other programs available for free over the Internet.
So-called 'open-source' programs threaten to undercut Ballmer's plan to sell more software for server computers. He'll have a hard time convincing corporate clients that their networks should be moved to the Windows operating system if customers have a cheaper option, investors said.
Ballmer a few years ago summed up Microsoft's competition by using the acronym NOISE -- Netscape, Oracle, IBM, Sun and Everybody else. Netscape Communications Corp., now owned by AOL Time Warner Inc., isn't on Microsoft's radar anymore. Ballmer now talks less about Sun and Oracle Corp. and more about Linux and International Business Machines Corp.'s WebSphere program, which works with Linux.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
— "Mahatma" Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869 - 1948)
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