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Ballmer Wants to "Stomp Linux" Using MS community
StefMeister writes "According to this article on CNet, MS wants to fight Linux by using their community support (of course by community they mean the few guys they personally know and who make money using their MS knowledge). My favorite quote of the article is this one "Linux is not like Novell, it isn't going to run out of money--it started off bankrupt, in a way.""
So, they plan to "beat linux on value" in the
clustering area because they realize that they
really can't beat the price.
But -- how would a 100 node microsoft cluster have
any better value than the same cluster running some
linux clustering sw? The microsoft system would
be around 100 times more expensive, and the
licensing would be outrageous.
Imagine you want to add 20 nodes to your cluster.
With linux -- no problem, cable it up and go.
With microsoft, well, you probably have to get
some more licenses, and another 20 copies of
windows to install. That's around $3500 just
for the os software.
And finally, there are lots of linux clustering
installations running today, and many of those
have been using clusters for years and have a
history of upgrades and improvements. I really
doubt these people will be interested in
switching to a microsoft monolithic cluster.
More and more, microsoft is getting desperate.
I think we all could have gotten the point of the story without the editorial. I'm not talking about censoring the guy, I'm just saying that it detracts from an otherwise decent story.
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
"We have to compete with free software on value, but in a smart way. We cannot price at zero, so we need to justify our posture and pricing. Linux isn't going to go away--our job is to provide a better product in the marketplace."
M$ knows that it has to make a better product than Linux to survive. I think they have a long way to go.. **Evidence**that people/community can shake huge corporations!!! C'mon M$ is afraid of /.
A Good Troll is better than a Bad Human.
(of course by community they mean the few guys they personally know and who make money using their MS knowledge)
Are you kidding me?
Want to make some cash?
Get a group of guys together who have MCP's and MCSE's, maybe an A+ and Cisco guy for cool logos to put on your business cards.
Go around 'consulting' networks for the local small businesses for $60 an hour, $120 an hour for the SE's
If you can find the business and there's not much competition, it's like taking sugary treats from an infant.
MS has made its fortune turning its "community" into a gaggle of hand-held idiots; now they're going to turn to THEM for their salvation?
pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
Fair enough... In that case I misunderstood your original post. From the point of view of a software developer, the idea of free software scares me a little. Granted, and maybe hypocritically, I use freeware/open source stuff a lot, especially SDKs and whatnot... But as more and more software becomes free I can see fewer developers getting paid to program. The company I work for already looks for freeware whenever it can.
[FromTheMorning]
"Linux is not like Novell, it isn't going to run out of money--it started off bankrupt, in a way." said Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer, as he noticed he could not pull up a ticker symbol for Linux on the NASDAQ or NYSE and concluded it could not be any sort of threat.
Wow... I've heard of confused paradigms and misunderstandings leading folks down the wrong path before, but this is amazing (and I think reflects a very deep fear and circling of wagon mentality coming from the top of Microsoft).
At a minimum, Balmer's comment here reflects a complete inability to grasp that the competition this time is different. It's not another Microsoft, another software company that they can pin a name to, use the same strategy and crush it through whatever mechanisms.
I just don't get it, Bill. I know there has to be an evil Linux conspiracy organization out there, but I can't find their headquarters. How can the Microsoft Storm Troopers 2.1(TM) infiltrate an enemy we cannot find?
It's intangible. It's an infectious meme. It'd be like King Charles I dismissing the threat of Parliment because they didn't possess a throne.
Not to get too esoteric, but I'd suggest Balmer read Milton's Areopagetica quickly. He might just learn the answer to all their inherent security problems, as well as the probable long term failure of the current strategy (which he apparently will ride to the ground given present thinking). Then again, maybe he shouldn't and business students can have a good case study of why closed source is a bad idea in the long run.
Closed source doesn't permit "grappling of truth and falsehood." It hides, obscures, conceals falsehoods (such as security problems or bugs) and relies upon official persons of the Microsoft kingdom to be allowed to discuss and determine what truth/falsehood is. Recent aggression with EULAs and service packs prohibiting public exposure of such defects nearly mirrors a sort of Star Chamber - a certification from Microsoft permitting one to speak (and those that criticize are not permitted).
Given the rapidly increasing defensiveness (much of which can be attributed to antitrust, I'd guess), I don't see an ability to change until its probably too late.
That's the worst site ever. Its like a mirror for slashdot except only the worst of. There literally are no resonable people there. Take for example a post yesterday where some guy said XP sucks for wireless and a bunch of us rebuked him. That would never happen there. Its a one way street. Every post is "linux sucks" and if a non-MS product is ever mentioned all they do is crap all over it. Truly Sad.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
"Linux is not like Novell, it isn't going to run out of money--it started off bankrupt, in a way."
Did he mean fiscally bankrupt? As opposed to, um, someone else who is ethically and morally bankrupt?
Linux:
Total assets: $0.00
Total liabilities: $0.00
Good will: $3,200,000,000.00
Doesn't look "bankrupt" to me, either fiscally or morally.
If this is the best the pro-MS crowd can do, then MS really is in a lot of trouble!
A selection of topics that look like what an intern at MS's own PR department would pick, most of the fora empty, & the few fora that have any comments
degenerate within 15 minutes into Linux vs. Windows flamefest.
Someone even thought a car accident one month ago was worth an article on this site. It took me some digging (the way they link to stories suck) to confirm what I suspected: Heikki Kanerva, one of the victims in this accident, was an employee at MS. In other words, a story so poorly written a reader really had to work at to care about it.
There *HAS* to be a better pro-MS discussion forum somewhere. Any suggestions?
Geoff
I think I see a trend here. Maybe for them it really would be easier to muzzle the entire internet than to produce p
Wanted to get this here before the moderators there take it off the site.
#14 By Obsidious (2 Posts) at 9/25/2002 5:34:22 PM I think the comparisons Ballmer tries to distinguish are rather funny, because in the grand scheme of things, the "Microsoft Community" tend to be nothing more than blindfolded, castrated lemmings marching off a cliff.
The rest of the people on that page make me wish their was a moderation system on their site.Before you flame, let me give you an example. Bug patches.
When a bug in a Microsoft product is revealled, users are at the mercy of said bug until a patch is released. Which often takes weeks, or even months after the fact. It seems that Microsoft spends more time and money on PR spin and attacks against bug whistle blowers than it does on fixing the bugs and getting it over with. What is that saying? When you don't have the law, you persecute the prosecutor? We can't count on an MCSE(What you might consider the REAL Microsoft community) to help, since their training is about as broad as playing Solitaire and rebooting when they run into a problem. These people are trained monkeys with toilet paper diplomas.
Enter the open source community. Although there are quite a few loons in the bunch who give most of them a bad name (RMS, ERS, Alan Cox, I'm looking at you guys), the community gets right to the point when it comes to serious bugs and getting fixes out promptly. I can often find patches days, or even hours after an alert has been issued. There's no PR flack or media ass kissing to make up for developer laziness. A patch is made, and life moves on. But that's not where "the community" part really shines. No, the community has a strong sense of self because THEY maintain these programs themselves. They are often developers and artists throwing their lot in to make the software better. Mozilla, for instance, is not the product of a multinational corporation. It is the product of the developers, who are also the users. In the end, the users have total control of their software and what goes into it.
And that's why the community is strong. They have something invested in the software because it's a part of them. It's not something they bought off the shelf.
This is something Ballmer and crew will never achieve. As far as Microsoft is concerned, it's about master and slave. And that's the way it will always be for them.