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Re: [News] Ballmer Confirms GNU/Linux is Microsoft's Biggest Competitor, Threat

Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
> Feeling the heat at Microsoft
> 
> ,----[ Quote ]
>| A couple of years ago you reiterated that IBM was Microsoft's biggest 
>| competitor and you said not just on the business side, but overall. If I ask 
>| you who is Microsoft's biggest competitor now, who would it be?  
>| 
>| Ballmer: Open...Linux. I don't want to say open source. Linux, certainly have 
>| to go with that. Perhaps Google on that layer, although frankly speaking, 
>| most of what we have there is upside. We're small and they're big. (With) 
>| most things, we're big and the other guy is small, so we have more to lose 
>| than gain. In this case, we have more to gain than to lose with Google.    
> `----
> 
> http://www.news.com/Feeling-the-heat-at-Microsoft/2008-1012_3-6232458.html?tag=ne.fd.mnbc
> 
> No, not Apple, not IBM, not Sun, and not that 'open' cuddly thingie Microsoft
> pretends to be a part of. It's Linux and the GPL that Ballmer and his lackeys
> are scared of. Did you hear this, Apple users?
> 

Apple is doing a good job of maintaining a business model based on
proprietary hard and software, but they continue to aim at the wealthy
market, rather than the mainstream, and continue to derive income from a
relatively small user based compared with Microsoft, but at a much
higher ARPU than Microsoft get.

The GPL, open-source, Linux, however, has a zero Arpu requirement.
Business models have to be different, of course, as lock-in is no longer
effective, but even so, ARPU is no longer the key metric, rather, it's
about integration, support and development revenue.  These are not
processor or user-based, they are per-purchase or per-contract revenues.



> 
> Related:
> 
> Can Ballmer pilot Microsoft through a changed tech course?
> 
> ,----[ Quote ]
>| Can Ballmer steer Microsoft out of the roadblocks?
>| 
>| The highly competitive Ballmer, you might say, is the man who cried "nice." 
>| And like the boy who cried wolf, no one believed him. The software giant's 
>| attempt to make nice with much of the developer community by opening up its 
>| APIs for key products was greeted with a jaundiced eye by regulators at the 
>| powerful European Commission.    
>| 
>| However sincere Microsoft's stated change of heart may be, it is becoming 
>| clearer and clearer that Microsoft -- which knows it has to change -- is 
>| still struggling to find a fresher path.  
>| 
>| What's a poor CEO to do?
>| 
>| Now that Bill Gates has effectively left the building, Ballmer is free to 
>| transform Microsoft, a job made all the tougher by the enormous reservoir of 
>| mistrust the company has engendered over the years.  
>| 
>| Case in point: the open APIs. Microsoft will give its competitors free access 
>| to the application programming interfaces and protocols it uses to ensure 
>| interoperability between its own products, a very significant change in 
>| business practices.    
> `----
> 
> http://weblog.infoworld.com/tech-bottom-line/archives/2008/02/microsoft_open.html
> 
> 
> EU May Fine Microsoft Over Antitrust Case, People Say
> 
> ,----[ Quote ]
>| The fine may be announced as soon as Feb. 27, said the people, who declined 
>| to be identified because the decision isn't public. Microsoft said in a Jan. 
>| 24 U.S. regulatory filing that the penalty may be as much as 1.5 billion 
>| euros ($2.2 billion).   
> `----
> 
> http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=conewsstory&refer=conews&tkr=MSFT:US&sid=aG8SwG8llTmM
> 
> 
> Microsoft's Last Big Beat: Internet Domination or Death
> 
> ,----[ Quote ]
>| What can $44.6B USD mean? Well, for Microsoft (MSFT) it may mean the cost of 
>| survival. 
> `----
> 
> http://seekingalpha.com/article/63876-microsoft-s-last-big-beat-internet-domination-or-death?source=yahoo
> 
> 
> Microsoft says to borrow money for Yahoo deal
> 
> ,----[ Quote ]
>| Microsoft Corp said on Monday it may borrow money for the first time in its 
>| history to fund a portion of its $44.6 billion unsolicited offer for Yahoo 
>| Inc.  
> `----
> 
> http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNews/idUSN0455692920080205
> 
> 
> Will Microsoft Survive the Next 10 Years?
> 
> ,----[ Quote ]
>| I am not really an expert in this but when I read all the negative
>| headlines and articles I ask myself if Microsoft really will survive
>| the next 10 years.
>| 
>| [...]
>| 
>| I am pretty sure that the Open Source Community, the new Ubuntu,
>| Google and of course Apple are those companies that are ready for
>| our century and they will get more and more people that know what
>| they really want.
> `----
> 
> http://websquirrel.blogspot.com/2007/03/will-microsoft-survive-next-10-years.html
> 
> 
> P. Graham: Microsoft is Dead
> 
> ,----[ Quote ]
>| A few days ago I suddenly realized Microsoft was dead. I was talking
>| to a young startup founder about how Google was different from Yahoo.
>| I said that Yahoo had been warped from the start by their fear of
>| Microsoft. That was why they'd positioned themselves as a "media
>| company" instead of a technology company. Then I looked at his face
>| and realized he didn't understand. It was as if I'd told him how much
>| girls liked Barry Manilow in the mid 80s. Barry who?
>| 
>| Microsoft? He didn't say anything, but I could tell he didn't quite
>| believe anyone would be frightened of them.
> `----
> 
> http://www.paulgraham.com/microsoft.html
> 
> 
> Microsoft's DreamSpark ? What a Giveaway
> 
> ,----[ Quote ]
>| The rest of the $44.6bn (£22.3bn) deal would be financed with an undisclosed 
>| amount of credit. 
>| 
>| What that means is that it must squeeze as much money as it can from its 
>| operations to fund that debt and still pay dividends to shareholders, who 
>| will be looking for some payback from the Yahoo takeover. Giving away 
>| software is the last thing it would want to do in these circumstances, and 
>| the DreamSpark announcement shows just how worried it is about the future.    
> `----
> 
> http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/microsofts-dreamspark-%E2%80%93-what-giveaway


-- 
| Mark Kent   --   mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk          |
| Cola faq:  http://www.faqs.org/faqs/linux/advocacy/faq-and-primer/   |
| Cola trolls:  http://colatrolls.blogspot.com/                        |
| My (new) blog:  http://www.thereisnomagic.org                        |

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