03.02.10

Salesforce CEO: Microsoft is “Somewhat Disgusting”; Microsoft Smears of Free Software Carry on

Posted in Free/Libre Software, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Office Suites, OpenOffice, Oracle, Servers, Windows at 8:09 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

“Microsoft allowed us to [remove Internet Explorer from Windows] but we don’t think we should have to ask permission every time we want to make some minor software modification. Windows is an operating system, not a religion.”

–Gateway Computer Chairman Ted Waitt

Summary: Tough words about Microsoft’s fight against anything other than its own software that it controls entirely

THE previous post was evidence of the fact that Microsoft not only sues rivals for competing; it also uses extortion to prevent Amazon.com from offering GNU/Linux servers at a reasonable price. In a meeting that took place last week, the CEO of Salesforce.com called Microsoft names for its removal of all platforms other than Windows.

Marc Benioff, chief executive of cloud-computing company Salesforce.com, called Microsoft “somewhat disgusting” for its fixation with the Windows operating system, and went on to spread around disdain for SAP and IBM.

A hopeful pacifist might suggest that Microsoft is fine with Free software — or any software for that matter — as long as it runs on Windows, but that’s not true (ask Netscape or Mozilla, for example). Jason from The Source has just done an excellent job finding and dissecting Microsoft’s OpenOffice.org FUD material that everyone can view:

Back in the dark ages of the early 2000s, Microsoft ran a misleading FUD campaign against Linux under the “Get the Facts” banner.

It looks like “Why Microsoft” is the not-much-anticipated sequel, where – in concert with a blog running cutting edge 3.5-year old software – Microsoft will again FUD, mislead and distort as it attacks alternatives to its proprietary lock-in-rich offerings – including some Open Source contenders like Open Office.org.

The Present

As the Gentle and Return Reader knows, one of my favorite past times is pointing out fallicies, distortions or downright lies. The entire “Why Microsoft” site is chock-full, but let’s just look at a few from the “So, You’re Considering OpenOffice.org” PDF Microsoft offers.

[...]

More of the same, of course. Present tactics are the same as the past tactics, save that Microsoft has gotten a little bit more clever in concealing its intentions.

This is just another example of Microsoft FUDing an Open Source competitor. I guess that’s alright if you are involved in a bit of FUD against OpenOffice.org yourself, but personally I don’t approve.

Microsoft has also been scheming to use software patents against OpenOffice.org. So for those who think that Microsoft is tolerant of competition, it’s time to wake up. █

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2 Comments

your_friend said,

March 4, 2010 at 10:12 am

Wow.

Roy Schestowitz Reply:
March 4th, 2010 at 1:06 pm
There’s history to his rant against Microsoft.

Salesforce.com pulls plug on Sun’s flagship Unix servers

The big rival to Sun’s massively engineered and supported UltraSPARC boxes running Solaris are the lower-priced Dell boxes running Linux.

Benioff did not say what Dell servers or operating system Salesforce.com will run, citing competitive reasons. It’s likely, though, Salesforce.com is running Linux.

Marc Benioff’s mantra: Anything but Microsoft

I think Microsoft is still a dinosaur. More than ever, it tries to hold onto its monopolistic position around technology that they hold, whether it’s SQL Server, whether it’s NT, whether it’s Windows, whether it’s Office–these are their cash cows they don’t want slaughtered.

Google, Salesforce Expand Integration Of Cloud Computing Platforms

Force.com Toolkit for Google Data APIs is available at no charge through Salesforce and Google. Applications can be published on either the Google section of AppExchange or on the search engine’s Solutions Marketplace.

Microsoft Partners Wary Of Salesforce-Google CRM

Salesforce.com and Google on Monday unveiled a new offering that marries office productivity apps with CRM and looks like a pre-emptive strike against Microsoft’s upcoming Dynamics CRM Live service.

Marc Benioff taunts the awakened dinosaurs

Following is part of the exchange, where I asked Benioff for his thoughts on Microsoft. He has called Microsoft a dinosaur, incapable of innovation, and a monopolist.

Salesforce says it’s beating, mirroring Microsoft

While dismissing Microsoft’s announced move into Salesforce’s on-demand software turf, Benioff also said that his firm is akin to Microsoft back when that company’s marquee product was the DOS operating system.

Google, Salesforce.com partner on Web site

Salesforce.com and Google launched a Web site on Tuesday that is designed to allow the online customer relationship management software maker to act as a reseller for Google’s AdWords.

Salesforce get another Open Source Plug-in

Jasper4Salesforce delivers easy access to advanced reporting by building on top of the AppExchange on-demand platform to integrate the one of the more popular open source reporting solution into the Salesforce suite of applications.

JasperSoft’s Market-Leading Open Source Reporting Solution Now Available On salesforce.com’s AppExchange

“Jasper4Salesforce provides customers with a market-leading open source business intelligence solution that’s been proven in tens of thousands of deployments.”

Marketing hype aside, Apex is Salesforce.com’s response to open source.

Nick thinks it’s big news, and I do, too. It’s big because it offers customers a way to customize hosted applications, rather than running them “as is.” The myth has been that companies don’t want to customize software. The reality is that they emphatically do. Salesforce.com’s traditional customer base (SMEs) did not. Its big Fortune 500 companies definitely do.