CRN: Ballmer: IBM, Linux, AOL Remain On Hit List As Sun Fades As Threat

"Microsoft still considers AOL Time Warner a primary competitor despite the media giant's recent travails, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told CRN late Tuesday.

"'AOL is still on the list. . . . It's fun to see the other guy hiccuping, but it's still 'the' franchise in the United States. Most people in the this country when asked how they access the Internet, say they do so via AOL,' he said.

"Linux remains a huge factor as well, he said. The open-source code operating system remains a 'tough competitive force... It's non-traditional, it's free and it's cheap. We have to educate people why what they pay for [our offerings] is more than offset by the value we deliver. We used to be the cheap guys. We were cheaper than Novell, cheaper than Oracle. We can't do that with this one,' Ballmer said..."

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• CNN: Microsoft Learns a Lesson from Competition (Apr 17, 2002)
• CNET News.com: Why Microsoft is wary of open source(Jun 18, 2001)