[QD-Filosofia] Ballmer bullish on future, bearish on Linux

http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/os/windows/story/0,10801,95633,00.html

Ballmer bullish on future, bearish on Linux
He predicted more IT change in the next decade than in the last

News Story by Paul Roberts

SEPTEMBER 01, 2004 (IDG NEWS SERVICE) - Addressing a gathering of software 
industry leaders in Boston today, Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer touted 
his company's vision for a bright future and cast doubt on alternatives to 
the Windows operating system, such as Linux.

Speaking to members of the Massachusetts Software Council, Ballmer said he 
is excited about the promise of technological advances in the next decade. 
But he shed his visionary mantle soon after, taking shots at the open-source 
software development community and warning participants to think twice 
before adopting open-source products like Linux.

"I'm as fired up now as I've ever been in 24 years at Microsoft," Ballmer 
said. Noting the rapid adoption of technology such as PCs, the Internet and 
cellular telephones in the preceding decade, Ballmer said a new generation 
of software and hardware, driven by advances in speech-recognition and 
multimedia technologies, will revolutionize the way individuals work and 
live.

"In the next 10 years, you're going to see more positive change than in the 
last 10," Ballmer said.

Noting the prevalent use of pen and paper by audience members, Ballmer 
wondered aloud why the content of his speech was not being captured and 
translated automatically, while also being synchronized with real-time video 
and a copy of his Microsoft PowerPoint presentation. Advances in software in 
coming years would make such steps practical and would make "information 
workers" and those in fast-growing fields like health care more productive, 
he said.

Ballmer promoted Microsoft's products as a key to that transformation, 
including the next version of the Windows operating system, dubbed Longhorn, 
and the company's .Net computing architecture.

Joking about recent news regarding a curtailed list of features in Longhorn, 
Ballmer said that cutting back on the promised features at least allowed the 
company to announce a release date for the product, which was a "major 
accomplishment."

Despite the focus on the next version of Windows, Microsoft is also working 
to make its offerings more interoperable with products using other software 
platforms such as Linux, Unix and XML, Ballmer said.

Ballmer singled out XML and Web services as the "big breakthrough" of the 
next decade that will spur innovation. "The fact that companies like Oracle, 
IBM and [Microsoft] have bet on an architected approach to interoperability 
is huge," he said.

Even while promoting interoperability, Ballmer scoffed at arguments that his 
company's operating system creates a computing "monoculture," and he took a 
swipe at those who would see Linux replace Windows on corporate servers and 
desktops.

Microsoft's platforms offer better interoperability with the company's other 
technology, such as .Net, reducing the total cost of ownership of Windows 
compared with Linux, which is available for free but often requires 
significant effort to integrate and maintain, Ballmer said. He pointed to a 
Microsoft-sponsored study by Forrester Research Inc. and a similar study by 
Gartner Inc. to bolster his claims.

Technology research groups have published different findings about the cost 
benefits of using Linux compared with Windows, with some, including IDC, 
finding that the cost of owning Linux is less than the cost of owning 
Windows and others finding the opposite to be true.

On the touchy issue of security, Ballmer also dismissed the notion that 
Linux is more secure than Windows, saying that Linux would be attacked just 
as frequently as Windows if the open-source operating system had as large a 
share of the operating system market as Windows.

"If you have two popular operating systems, both will get attacked --  
whatever is popular is going to be attacked," he said.

While not perfect on security, Microsoft has a defined process for 
addressing security vulnerabilities, unlike the open-source community, which 
he said is "all over the map" when it comes to addressing vulnerabilities in 
Linux.

Finally, Ballmer argued that companies should be wary of the lack of 
indemnity from lawsuits, such as the suit filed by The SCO Group Inc. 
against DaimlerChrysler AG, IBM, Novell Inc. and others over parts of the 
Linux operating system that SCO claims infringe on elements of the Unix 
operating system that it owns.

"In the Linux world, nobody stands behind patent claims," he said, noting 
that Microsoft's customers would be protected even if the company were 
forced to swallow a $550 million judgment if it loses its ongoing case with 
Eolas Technologies Inc.

"I'm not trying to spread fear, uncertainty and doubt," Ballmer said. "I 
just think people should go out and research this for themselves."

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