Thanks to Randy for
this link.
“Microsoft president Steve Ballmer declared he is more concerned
about competition for software developers than at any time since
the company broke with IBM during the early days of the PC
boom.”
“Ballmer, speaking at the company’s annual meeting for financial
analysts, said the combination of Internet technologies, the Java
programming language, database-driven application development, and
growth in use of the Linux operating system is threatening
Microsoft’s ability to attract programmers to Windows.”
“The variety of options available to developers could ‘suck
away’ interest in the various forms of Windows, Ballmer said.”
“Addressing the growing amount of development done for the Linux
operating system, a so-called open source platform that
incorporates the work of volunteers developers worldwide, Ballmer
termed the phenomenon ‘scary.’ The Unix community had previously
chosen not to take full advantage of the proliferation of PCs to
further its share of the software market, but Linux–a Unix
deriviate–has pushed into PCs and other devices.”
“Ballmer also characterized the free-form Linux community as
‘somewhat crazy,’ but said Microsoft now has ‘a real server
competitor.'”
