“In summing up its year for financial analysts and investors
today, a supremely confident Microsoft Corporation gave few
indications that it felt embattled… Over all, the company’s
revenue grew by 29 percent.
“Microsoft’s president, Steven Ballmer, said that 99 million
Windows-based personal computers were sold in the last year, a
global growth rate of 14 percent. The numbers appeared to
overwhelm even the normally unflappable Ballmer…”
“Microsoft also announced early this morning that it was
mounting an all-out attack on a market currently dominated by
America Online — instant-messaging software.”
“Ballmer took particular note of Linux, a free version
of the Unix operating system that is widely seen as a significant
competitive threat to Microsoft, particularly among corporate
users.
“The Unix phenomenon is scary,” he said. “It doesn’t go away.
Linux is a serious, albeit crazy, implementation of Unix on the
Intel platform.””
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