Microsoft’s Ballmer slams open source

Wednesday, Jul. 14 2004 | Author: Scrivs

“Technology innovation has happened much, much more from commercial software developers than from open source,” he said, adding that big companies also have marketing muscle and resources to support their products. “Who’s going to stand up and support open source? At least, with us, it’s clear who you have to come and pound down on. There’s a clear line of responsibility.”

You always have to like these silly little rants by the Ballmerinator. I am not so sure Microsoft wants to claim responsibility with all the security exploits going around today. Yep, glad we have a company we can point a finger at. Thanks Steve.

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One Response for "Microsoft’s Ballmer slams open source"

Sean

July 15th, 2004 at 6:46 am
1

The sad thing is that Balmer is completely correct in same ways. If you are going to use open source software you do not have an entity to blame unless such products are purchased and supported by a vendor for the open source products.

This is changing though, this is as expected FUD. Microsoft does not take kindly to competitors, especially since the open source model doesn’t lend itself to being attacked or mitigated by standard monopoly buisness practices.

Their greatest effort to resist open source invading their market share is FUD.

Once the FUD runs out, Microsoft will have to compete to meet the expecations set by open source products, which means compeition. Competition breeds innovation and improvement.

We can lovely consider this the the arms race of the future MegaCorp software companies vs. the open world. I doubt there will be a winner but everyone will benefit from it one way or another.