Bonum Certa Men Certa

Why GNU/Linux is Microsoft's #1 Desktop Threat, Shareholders Are Finally Being Informed

“We are not on a path to win against Linux”

--Jim Allchin, Microsoft's Platform Group Vice President



Summary: As Microsoft's earnings fall by a third (again), the reasons are being further analysed and Microsoft investors warned

NOW that it is easier to show ordinary folks that Net Applications is a joke, other writers remark on the inaccuracy of their numbers, which were held up by opponents of GNU/Linux as though these were a gold standard. Paul Rubens writes:



Now, of course, one can discuss Net Applications' methodology endlessly and question the credibility of any organization that has to revise its figures by as much as 50 percent. But that's all rather missing the important point. The point is that America's purchasing patterns aren't necessarily the same as the rest of the world's.


Had Net Applications bothered with parts of the world like Russia and Brazil, Apple's share would drop further and GNU/Linux climb sharply. But Net Applications is probably concerned about paying clients like Microsoft and Apple more than it cares about accurate representation of the truth [1, 2, 3, 4].

“According to Steve Ballmer, GNU/Linux has more market share than Mac OS X (on the desktop).”According to Steve Ballmer, GNU/Linux has more market share than Mac OS X (on the desktop). Microsoft's internal communication as well is overly obsessed with GNU/Linux, and not so much with Apple. The matter of fact is that Apple only jeopardises Microsoft's wealthiest of customer bases, whereas the vast majority of the clientèle does not fit into this privileged class.

Microsoft's fight against GNU/Linux on the desktop is evident based on Comes vs Microsoft exhibits. Microsoft is admittedly scared of GNU/Linux. Our latest post about the Halloween Documents was cited widely and it received some interesting replies. "Barney" writes under the headline "consistent business model of anti-competitive methods":

they talk like this is competition but it is like many others have said, they'll say their horse if faster than yours, your horse is slow, and then instead of working on making sure they have the fastest horse, they put 100% of their efforts into shooting your horse.

Have you seen anything where they talk about making a better product and actually competing? No. And that stuff linked about the NetPC( NC or Network Computer ) was revealing in light of the netbook market. Consider how they are "competing" with Linux on netbooks by signing exclusive Windows XP deals such that executives from the OEMs publicly apologize for someone showing Linux on one of their netbooks. I'm sure they want to see the netbook market die off like the NC market and are using many of the same tricks and techniques. There is the smartphone and Android market too. Microsoft paid off every phone manufacturer to plug a version of their OS which was a year off at the exclusion of any Android devices or discussions even though many of these same phone manufacturers planned to ship Android phones in the next few months.

Same old Microsoft and same old Microsoft business methods. A new Microsoft my arse.


"GH" argues that:

MS wants to blend with the oss community to mix code and then like SCO from the deep, make claims against Linux.


Microsoft's 10K says: "ITEM 1A.€ RISK FACTORS Our operations and financial results are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including those described below, that could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows, and the trading price of our common stock. Challenges to our business model may reduce our revenues and operating margins."

GNU/Linux is among those risks (not just on servers, as we noted before [1, 2, 3, 4]). More news sites are beginning to write about this, e.g.:

1. Microsoft Acknowledges Linux Threat to Windows Client

Microsoft for the first time has named Linux distributors Red Hat and Canonical as competitors to its Windows client business in its annual filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The move is an acknowledgement of the first viable competition from Linux to Microsoft's Windows client business, due mainly to the use of Linux on netbooks, which are rising in prominence as alternatives to full-sized notebooks.


2. Microsoft Blames Open Source for Sales Slump

For many of the regularly caffeinated it was the closing of 600 Starbucks locations; for a large portion of the medical community, the announcement of the sinking crocs ship. As for the tech geeks, it was surely Microsoft’s first-ever drop in annual Windows sales that made them realize: Oh my, the economy really is messed up!

In this case, however, the economy is not the only culprit. Microsoft’s Q4 report to the U.S. SEC includes a rundown of their risk and competition factors, and on that list are both Linux and open source solutions.


3. SpringSource, Canonical, and MySQL join Red Hat on Microsoft's hit list

Today, life is a little less rosy for Microsoft, as it calls out in its recent 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As TechFlash highlights, Google Android is now called out by Microsoft as a competitor, as are Apple, Opera, and Google in browsers, whereas only Mozilla was deemed worthy of Microsoft's competitive glare in 2008.


Because of GNU/Linux, Microsoft is competing on price now, rarely charging as much as it is able to get away with given a monopoly. This does not prevent the company from dabbling with price hikes though. From the British news:

Windows 7 upgrade rip-off for UK customers



Microsoft imposes 100% price hike


They give the illusion that Vista 7 is worth something and then bundle it with PCs to make it look like a bargain. At the same time, Microsoft bullies GNU/Linux vendors using racketeering tactics; it is always trying to tax Linux. Here is an old but highly relevant quote:

[Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson] went as far as to compare [Microsoft’s] declaration of innocence to the protestations of gangland killers. He was referring to five gang members in a racketeering, drug-dealing, and murder trial that he had presided over four years earlier. [...] Jackson believed that Gates & Co.’s “crime” was hubris—a refusal to acknowledge that the nation’s antitrust laws applied to them. He was only half joking when he told me, “If I were able to propose a remedy of my devising, I’d require Mr. Gates to write a book report.” The assignment, Jackson said, would be a recent biography of Napoleon, and he went on, “Because I think he has a Napoleonic concept of himself and his company, an arrogance that derives from power and unalloyed success, with no leavening hard experience, no reverses.”


Not much has changed since then:

Notice how Steve [Ballmer] diverts the attention of the public from the real issue here: money. What Steve here tries to underline - as he has done in oh-so-many-occasions - is the fact that everything has a price. If his company sells, then by comparison, what is free must also have a price. You see, for Steve is crucial that the consumers get brainwashed with this idea. Otherwise they could all just wake up one day and say “hey - what have we been paying for all this time? Why can Linux be free?” So this is the story of the happy little “intelectual property” fairy. Steve used to call Linux users “communists”. Linux used to be a “cancer”. Do you know what communists do? They monopolize people.


GNU/Linux is Microsoft's Nemesis.

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Microsoft Uses LLM Slop to Defraud (or Rob) Shareholders
Microsoft is basically defrauding its shareholders by LLM slop
The "Davos Effect": Tarnishing the Reputation of Places Not by Overtourism But by Oligarch Infestation
The last Venice needs is an affiliation with Venetian oligarchs
 
Links 01/07/2025: "Independence Day in Taiwan", Bounties on Software Patents
Links for the day
What Happens When Your Law Firm is Preoccupied With Harassing and Trying to Extort a Humble Couple in Manchester, Even on Behalf of Violent Microsoft Staff From Another Continent
It's good to see that law firms which operate in bad faith are perishing
Lawyer X, Law Firm X and Elon Musk's X: scandals linked by Old Xaverian
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 01/07/2025: Distraction-Free Writing and Hytale Mismanagement
Links for the day
Links 01/07/2025: "Beauty of Blogging" and "Etiquette of Collapse"
Links for the day
The Web is a Dead End
We need to adopt alternatives
When Words Lose Their Intended Meaning
examples of words that, at least in the technical spheres, don't mean what they sound like
People Who Disagree With You on Technical Matters May or May Not Agree With You on Political Things (But Usually They Do)
What bothers me a great deal is seeing left-leaning people accusing other left-leaning people of being "nazis"
"Too Much Choice" and "Too Many Programming Languages"
What IBM and its apologists aim for was attempted in the 1930s and it failed
Microsoft Lost 400,000,000 Windows Users, According to Microsoft
more people adopt smaller computers and many people replace Windows with GNU/Linux, as they don't really need a new computer
Half a Year Gone, What's to Come Next
In the second half of 2025 we expect to be done with the Microsoft SLAPPs
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, June 30, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, June 30, 2025
People at the Very Top of Microsoft Know How Bad Things Really Are
There's no product that can replace the former profitability of Windows licensing and stuff that went on top of Windows
Gemini Links 01/07/2025: Mid Year and a Tour of Old Languages
Links for the day
EPO Presentation Bemoans Misuse of Slop in Decision-Making on Patents and in Classification (Which is Likely Illegal Too)
We habitually mention failed use cases of LLMs on the Web
Mass Layoffs at Microsoft Confirmed, "XBox Hardware Is Dead"
It's possible that over 20% of the staff will be laid off
Links 30/06/2025: Kyrgyzstan vs Media Freedom, Dalai Lama Succession
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/06/2025: Backend Programs in Gemini and Dynamic Content Without The Scripting
Links for the day
Links 30/06/2025: Zuckerberg’s Tax-Evading Scheme Harms Kids, US Copyright Office Lacks Leadership
Links for the day
Microsoft Isn't Laying Off Tens of Thousands to 'Invest' in Slop ('Hey Hi'), It's Laying Off Tens of Thousands Because It's Running Out of Money (and Willing Lenders)
the layoffs are a sign of the business failing, not "hey hi" (whatever that is) replacing staff
Intel Lays Off 20% of Its Workforce, Microsoft is Doing the Same This Year
Like a yoyo, whatever goes up will come back down
Microsoft XBox Layoffs: Almost 2,000 Layoffs Became "Over 2,000"? (Over 20% of the Staff)
over 20% of staff will be let go, not counting staff that leaves voluntarily
GNU/Linux Rises to New Highs in Angola, Africa in General is Abandoning Windows
Western media barely covers Microsoft layoffs in Africa, but in recent years Microsoft culled the workforce and even shut down entire operations
Summer Plans in Techrights and Elsewhere
massive layoffs at Microsoft
Destination Geminispace (in the Age of LLM Slop and Slop Images That Infest the Web and Social Control Media)
Geminispace isn't vast, but at least it is - on average - a lot "cleaner"
GNU/Linux Growing in Sierra Leone This Year
Based on what statCounter is seeing, this year there are more and more people there who adopt GNU/Linux
Serial Sloppers Gonna Slop
More sites out there ought to call out the cheaters
Quartz (qz.com) is Spam and a Slopfarm
It used to be OK. Then they fired the staff.
Links 30/06/2025: US Economic Woes, Extreme Heat
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, June 29, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, June 29, 2025
Gemini Links 30/06/2025: "The AI Hype" and New AuraGem Ask
Links for the day
Our Desktops Are Not Your Experiments, X is Not an Experiment
Breaking what already worked
Microsoft's Big Lies Regarding This Week's Mass Layoffs Have Already Begun (and They're Already Being Spread by Slopfarms)
Microsoft is the "market leader" in slop
Explaining the Full Story of SLAPPs From Microsoft Staff
For every action there is a reaction, for every attack there will be proportionate consequences
The Openwashing Shills Initiative (OSI) - Part III: IRS and Status of OSI
"They lied to the US IRS and there’s a paper trail"
IBM Red Hat's Dogmatic Fanaticism Under a Thin Veil of "Modernism"
IBM now has the audacity to paint people who don't agree as "nazis"
Microsoft's Share in Guatemala Fell From 97% to 14%
Eventually Microsoft will get stuck in a loop of layoffs, layoffs, and more layoffs
They Made Technology Scary and Taught Us That It's Innocent, Friendly, Even "Social"
Rejection of all this "apps" and "gadgets" and "Smart" (whatever that means!) status quo isn't a rejection of society
The Media is Under Attacks Partly Because There's Little Other (Remaining) Press to Speak in Its Defence
The biggest danger here is that when there's very little press or no "opposition media" left it becomes even easier to crush critics because there aren't many people left to speak about the matter
If Your Web Site is Run by Bots, Eventually Nobody Will 'Read' It Except Bots (People Don't Want to Read Slop)
Eventually people learn from mistakes
Links 29/06/2025: Microsoft Releases False/Fake Benchmarks, "Google Wants You to Watch Ads or Take Surveys to Read Articles"
Links for the day
Links 29/06/2025: Data Breaches and Online Censorship
Links for the day
Gemini Links 29/06/2025: "The Price Of Eggs" and Gemini 3D Tic Tac Toe
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, June 28, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, June 28, 2025