__/ [ nessuno@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ] on Thursday 16 March 2006 22:33 \__
> "Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Thursday it
> plans to spend $500 million over the next year trying to persuade
> businesses to use its software rather than hire International Business
> Machines (IBM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) consultants....
Fair enough. You can't defame them for having deep pockets.
> "Ballmer said the new software allows companies to let their employees
> perform tasks that they may now be paying IBM's huge services operation
> to handle.
There's an uncomforting feeling nonetheless... and okay, now that's just not
fair. The intent of Microsoft's software is not to offer many choices and
consider the large spectrum of solutions out there. The software is intended
to sell a particular product from one particular vendor. You would not get
the same outcome from a rather impartial, cutomer-oriented IBM consultant.
> "'Innovation is home-grown, it's not outsourced,' he said. 'IBM has an
> army of relatively expensive consultants. They enable their people to
> run your business. We enable your people to run your business, not take
> our people to run your business.'
About a month ago, Gates said that his biggest fear was IBM, not Google.
Perhaps this explains this major investment. Sooner or later they may even
start an IBM FUD campaign, portraying the consultants as ignorant folks. I
don't want to jump the gun, but we shall live and see.
> In a statement, IBM responded: 'Microsoft's marketing campaign -- you
> can't really call it a strategy -- is Window dressing for a pitch to
> keep a one-size-fits-all, proprietary Windows world.'"
>
>
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2006-03-16T195819Z_01_N16284940_RTRUKOC_0_US-MICROSOFT.xml
>
__/ [ Rex Ballard ] on Friday 17 March 2006 03:07 \__
> Yep - you can buy the "one size fits all" solution from Microsoft.
You mean "eight sizes fit all"?
> Or - you can have OSS software "custom fit" to you exact business
> needs.
>
> You may have noticed that the line between IBM Software Products and
> OSS is getting blurry - because IBM keeps giving away more of the core
> goodies - then uses the commercial "accelerators to make the "fitting"
> quicker and cheaper.
That's the value of having a 'software trail'. It gets better and better in
due time. They are said to have many engineers working on Linux, which would
raise the TCO further. Their latest study showed Linux ownership to be 40%
cheaper than ownership of Windows.
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