"...of course, we know for IP and other reasons, of course they have a price..."

[Sealbhach]

Steve Ballmer makes more unsubstantiated threats about IP while talking about Linux...

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10301028-16.html

.

[Regenweald]

Good read, very funny. He is the head of Microsoft, he must have some kind of business acumen.

[YukaToshi]

Does anyone else want to remove the life from his animated corpse?

[MaxIBoy]

Ballmer is hilarious.

[zekopeko]

Does anyone else want to remove the life from his animated corpse?

Let me just level my cleric...

[MikeTheC]

Does anyone else want to remove the life from his animated corpse?

*starts chanting*

"Anull nethrack..."

[jomiolto]

"i p on ur ip."

[Sporkman]

IP freely.

[Viva]

Living off Gates' reputation

[schauerlich]

Does anyone else want to remove the life from his animated corpse?

Mmm, don't you love a good death wish is the morning?

[CharmyBee]

Mmm, don't you love a good death wish is the morning?

If it's the third film and it's on AMC, of course.

[Grant A.]

Ballmer's foot must taste delicious. He does this much too often.

Either way, Canonical is protected against software patents, because it is in Great Britain. As some of you may know, software patents do not exist in Great Britain.

The sooner Ballmer learns that Open Source is good because it is free labor, the better his company will do, and the better people will like Microsoft.

They've already said in the past that they are "tired of reinventing the wheel", and plan to look towards open source software. Microsoft just doesn't seem to get the fact that there won't be much of a drive to help them if they keep threatening the very people they want free labor from.

[Jimleko211]

they've already said in the past that they are "tired of reinventing the wheel", and plan to look towards open source software. Microsoft just doesn't seem to get the fact that there won't be much of a drive to help them if they keep threatening the very people they want free labor from.
+1

[shadylookin]

Apple's a great company, does a fine job, but their model says high margin, high quality, high price, that's kinda how they come to market.

He's essentially saying that the only thing Microsoft has going for them is it's lower price compared to Apple. Then in the same statement he mentioned that Linux is free and the only reason you shouldn't use it is some rambling about vendors and ecosystems.

If he was the CEO of a company I was invested in I'd want to slap him as he essentially just said they made a subpar OS.

[lykwydchykyn]

If he was the CEO of a company I was invested in I'd want to slap him as he essentially just said they made a subpar OS.

You gotta admire honesty. :-D

[Grant A.]

He's essentially saying that the only thing Microsoft has going for them is it's lower price compared to Apple. Then in the same statement he mentioned that Linux is free and the only reason you shouldn't use it is some rambling about vendors and ecosystems.

If he was the CEO of a company I was invested in I'd want to slap him as he essentially just said they made a subpar OS.

Atleast he's being honest. Honesty earns my respect much more than lying does.

It should be no contest that Windows is subpar. I know that, you know that, everyone else on the face of the Earth with a computer knows that, and apparently Ballmer now knows it. I remember in early versions of Windows that you could just bypass the login screen's password by clicking cancel. That's a pretty big security issue physical access-wise, but I don't know if that same vulnerability existed for remote connections.

The quicker that they realize that their OS is subpar, the quicker that they can try to address it. Marketshare numbers talk quite loudly to companies, and when a company's product starts to tank in marketshare, they definitely start to listen. Them realizing that their OS isn't the greatest is certainly a step in the right direction. However, given the patent threats thrown about, I'd think this makes them about neutral in this article. Certainly not neutral to open source users/developers, but neutral in the eyes of an end-user who would like to see the product improve.

The best thing for Microsoft at the moment would probably be to open-source (gratis, not libre) the Windows NT kernel. This way, they could get a response from freelancing developers about proof-of-concept attacks before they happen on a massive scale.

Of course, NT probably wouldn't get any attention until they become positive on the patent front, but you get the idea.


I do think it's quite funny how Microsoft seems to have balls the size of Texas. Novell, IBM, and Oracle have massive patent portfolios full of patent ICBMs. Microsoft wouldn't stand a chance if these companies all retaliated. Not to mention, a patent suit against a competitor, for no other reason than to excite fear, would probably get flagged by anti-trust personnel in the U.S. and E.U.

Microsoft is walking on a tightrope over a 1,000 foot deep canyon with sharp rocks awaiting at the bottom. If I were the CEO of Microsoft, I would try to keep attention away from my company.

Apple isn't Mr. Perfect, either. Blocking out multiple 3rd party softwares' abilities to interact with their MP3 player, in an attempt to gain more money in the iTunes store, is definitely monopoly abuse.

[MikeTheC]

A few thoughts...

The fact that Steve Ballmer actually describes Apple's products as being of high quality, and yet he cannot utter those same words for his own product, speaks volumes without regard to anything else he says or does. In fact, I don't see how anyone with a brain isn't hearing Ballmer basically say "Pay no attention to the elephant in the room as I'm saying this, but..."

Microsoft has no taste. They also have no self-pride. All they have is ambition and greed. Now, I'll grant you that that will get you far, but it has its limits. It's just like the Soviet Union's government continually publicly trying to shove smoke up their citizens' a**es, and eventually the crushing weight of all the negatives of how they'd gone about running their country those few decades forced the people to wake up to reality -- that is, for those who hadn't already long-since figured the truth out -- and basically just refuse to take it any more.

Microsoft has enjoyed the power and has become not just addicted by completely stoned out of their gourds on it. They have no true sense of reality, of honesty or anything else, and this is evidenced by the fantasy that Steve Ballmer so clearly lives in and demonstrates every single time he opens his mouth.

I'm not interested in seeing Microsoft come to its senses and return to the fold of "good companies". Not that I think they ever would or even could, but even so, I want to see them gone and cleared away so that new and fresh blood which has come up in the years of technology and is savvy can come in like new growth in a garden. I want to see many, many other companies collectively take Microsoft's "spot" and hopefully some number of them will be honest and decent and make a positive impact and difference on the world.

Microsoft's old news. Please, let them finally shoot themselves in the head and then fade away into mists of ancient history.

[BoyOfDestiny]

Good read, very funny. He is the head of Microsoft, he must have some kind of business acumen.

He is quite the salesman.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGvHNNOLnCk

[CJ Master]

Ballmer is hilarious.

I think that pretty much sums it up. :)

[Giant Speck]

As much as I like Windows and all, I can't help but facepalm at the thought of Steve Ballmer. #-o