Ballmer: We're cheaper than Apple! (but not Linux)

"He wouldn't be alone. IDC is seeing a massive uptake in Linux adoption because (surprise, Mr Ballmer!) it's a highly cost-effective solution in bad economic times. U.S. retailer The Gap, for example, just dumped Microsoft Windows for Red Hat Enterprise Linux because of its positive return-on-investment and superior flexibility.

"Microsoft may have been able to get Novell to "put a price on Linux" through intellectual property scare tactics, but it hasn't worked for the market leaders, Red Hat and Canonical (Ubuntu). Nor has it worked for the leading hardware and software vendors that depend on Linux, e.g., IBM, Oracle, SAP, etc."

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