06.08.10
Transformation of Form Factors Leaves Microsoft Behind and GNU/Linux Well Ahead
Summary: Many new articles document the demise of Microsoft in an era where mobile devices occupy more of people’s attention and Microsoft clings on to lies
SEVERAL weeks ago Microsoft killed the Courier [1, 2] because it was bad news brewing. It was not competitive enough.
As one new article puts it:
Meanwhile, Microsoft announced that it has dropped its “Courier” project, at least for now. The Courier was to be an electronic device to compete not only with the Kindle and Kobo, but more sophisticated devices such as the iPad.
It’s funny how they neglect to mention the many Linux-based tablets. Apple’s hypePad is in many ways worse than Windows. Check out the news coverage of Apple’s WWDC 2010, which contains this curious bit:
Quoted from the article:
“This closed strategy was part of the reason it failed to maintain a dominant market share when matched up against the open-source Windows platform from Microsoft Corp. during the PC turf wars of the late 1980s.”
Microsoft’s “open-source Windows platform”? Yet another warped definition of open source.
It’s rather absurd, is it not? Anyway, Microsoft is in a state of denial when it comes to tablets [1, 2]. Microsoft’s performance under Steve Ballmer’s reign is said to be poor and “Steve ‘Ballmer’s Reality Distortion Field is overheating’,” says a former Microsoft watcher. Here is Ballmer admitting that he still competes against open source while pretending to be “friends”:
Ballmer was even-handed with his praise for the open source operating system he once called “a cancer”. Admitting what the rest of the world already knows, he said that the open source community is a competitor to Microsoft’s products. However he wasn’t quite so generous or accurate with his assertion that netbooks running Linux distributions “didn’t sell well”, in a not so gracious response to a question about Google’s Linux based Android operating system tipping up on tablets.
And speaking of sub-notebooks, what Ballmer neglected to say are the facts which we covered in posts such as:
- Russia’s Antimonopoly Service Targets ASUS, Toshiba, H-P, Samsung and Dell for Potentially Colluding with Microsoft
- ASUS Enters the Slog Business
- More Suspicious Moves from ASUS
- It’s Unofficial: Microsoft Pays ASUS (Kickbacks) to Block GNU/Linux. Will EU Commission Step in?
- ASUS: “Currently, We’re Closely Tied up With Microsoft”
- What is Going on with ASUS and GNU/Linux?
- ASUS Profits Fall 94% After Getting “Closely Tied Up with Microsoft” at the Expense of GNU/Linux
- Microsoft Embracing, Extending, and Extinguishing Sub-notebooks
- Does Microsoft Blackmail Sub-notebooks Vendors?
- What Microsoft’s Anti-Linux Taskforce in Wal-Mart Teaches Us About Sub-notebooks
With assistance from Murdoch’s press, Microsoft continues to spread lies in order for them to be used as FUD against GNU/Linux in sub-notebooks. As expected, this FUD is then referenced by Microsoft booster Gavin Clarke. Microsoft is also concerned about Apple, no about it. Microsoft allies like McCracken try hard to come up with something positive to say about Microsoft in tablets (also republished in IDG, for increased readership) and Mary Jo Foley is blurring gaps for Microsoft’s convenience as “Microsoft (MSFT) Scrambles to Catch Up in Tablet Computers,” according to this news report.
“Overconfident Microsoft downplays Android threat,” says the headline of another report and here is another lie from Microsoft about Google:
Internet Explorer (IE) gained browser usage share last month in the U.S., while major rivals Firefox and Chrome both lost ground, Microsoft said today, citing data from Web analytics firm Net Applications.
Net Applications is Microsoft funded with Microsoft roots. Microsoft actively uses Net Applications data to belittle its competition, especially Free software (Apple is also paying Net Applications, so it gets decent treatment from these guys).
Here is another take from IDG, which routinely promotes the deception from Net Applications:
When asked about how Dell and other Microsoft partners have shown Android tablets, Ballmer noted that a year ago, many of those partners were selling Linux-based netbooks, but they didn’t sell well.
[...]
Ballmer did agree that the company has a new class of competitors, but said that was nothing new–10 years ago, it faced Linux and OpenOffice, for instance.
Well, he still faces them, by Microsoft’s own admission and financial filings. What’s with all the Google hate? Ballmer uses them as an embodiment of the “L” word.
Ballmer Compares Macs to Trucks, Disses Google OS
[...]
Ballmer starts the talk discussing how problematic Chinese piracy is. He blames this problem partly on a poor economy. When asked about Microsoft competitors, Ballmer plugs the open source community, commenting, “The main ones are folks that people would guess: Google, Apple, Oracle (ORCL), VMware (VMW). And of course, we still always have the things that come out of Open Source–Linux, etc.”
Once again he equates “Open Source” to “Linux”, as usual. There is no clear distinction between the attitude towards both. Microsoft wants to injure both. It needs to take this approach in order for its business model to survive. It’s a paradigm shift that it’s fighting, much like the “war of drugs” or the “war on terrorism”.
“Everything Wrong With The Steve Ballmer Era On Display At D8,” says Business Insider:
Remember his quote on the $500 iPhone? On Android being free? Ballmer likes to laugh at his rivals, only to become the laughingstock years later.
Well, you know what they… █
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
–Sometimes attributed to Gandhi
