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Ballmer: Microsoft to go after Linux strongholds (ZDNet)Ballmer: Microsoft to go after Linux strongholds (ZDNet)Posted Oct 20, 2005 21:16 UTC (Thu) by jerrysiebe (guest, #33230)Parent article: Ballmer: Microsoft to go after Linux strongholds (ZDNet)
I think it's interesting that Microsoft believes it has now found a way to fight Linux. They haven't been able to effectivly fight Linux up to now. Sure, they're running a staggering FUD campaign, but that's all they have. Now they declair thay have a winning strategy: divide and conqueror. It's more than that though, they are defining the battle.
"Because people will take a look at the tools and the technologies we put in the marketplace and decide that they deliver better results at a lower cost."
They want to focus in on aspects of Linux they can fight against, seperate from the whole, from the FOSS ideology and the benefits therein, and define it in terms they can compete against. Microsoft wants this battle to be about performance and cost. Of course they do, they can fight those. But Linux/FOSS isn't just performance and cost, and that's why they haven't been able to compete. What Ballmer is trying to do here is define the battle, to be in control.
If Microsoft wants to fight this battle, I think the Linux/FOSS community should take this oppertunity to make known to everyone all the battle lines that must be overcome to win this war. Microsoft's best chance is to be in control. I say we don't let them.
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Ballmer: Microsoft to go after Linux strongholds (ZDNet) Posted Oct 20, 2005 22:25 UTC (Thu) by njhurst (guest, #6022) [Link] If I had mod-points I'd mod this up! :)
You are right, a standard tactic in a losing debate is to change the goalposts. We must remember that freedom is the core reason for free software. I realised this when a large proportion of my department switched from linux to MacOSX - most people used linux because they hated microsoft, not because they loved freedom. Put enough shiny trinkets in front of someone and they'll forget their ideals in a snap!
Ballmer: Microsoft to go after Linux strongholds (ZDNet) Posted Oct 21, 2005 0:19 UTC (Fri) by mmarq (guest, #2332) [Link] " most people used linux because they hated microsoft, not because they loved freedom. Put enough shiny trinkets in front of someone and they'll forget their ideals in a snap! "
True.
But ideals can translate in better paradigmas. *They should translate in better paradigmas, always, or the ideal has no use*
So why cant Linux be better than OSX, or some future OSX, beying the same applied to MS products ? Intuitive Full 3D Desktops ?... i belive Linux/OSS has the necessary parts now (only at early stages) to win here as well.
When an ideal has translation into measurable items(we live in a very pragmatic world) like better performance, security, usability and features, then and only then has an ideal as a paradigma gained irresistibility, and people will associate both.
M$ will always try to shit on the numbers of the measures, and when not sticking will try to diverte into ambiguity values.
Belive Linux/OSS has too much of potencial, if community and specialy development came togheter with that intention on every aspects of computing, for MS or Apple to stand a chance.
Ballmer: Microsoft to go after Linux strongholds (ZDNet) Posted Oct 24, 2005 0:18 UTC (Mon) by njhurst (guest, #6022) [Link] "So why cant Linux be better than OSX, or some future OSX, beying the same applied to MS products ? Intuitive Full 3D Desktops ?... i belive Linux/OSS has the necessary parts now (only at early stages) to win here as well."
Because free software in general is a poor innovator. Innovation requires an idea, people to implement it, and people to use it. Ideas are common enough, implementations are rarer and nobody wants to use experimental software (I say this through experience). So we copy what people have already seen.
Ballmer: Microsoft to go after Linux strongholds (ZDNet) Posted Oct 21, 2005 1:47 UTC (Fri) by pyellman (guest, #4997) [Link] Maybe when he made the speech Ballmer was getting some of his old confidence back, convinced that Microsoft's standard tactics like this http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/051020/microsoft_antitrust.html may now once again be entirely acceptable.
Peter Yellman
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