Computerworld: Q&A: Ballmer Aims for Broader Customer Connection

[ Thanks to Jason
Greenwood for this link. ]

“[Take] the way we use community. Community has been a big tool
of support in the Linux world — being online, sharing answers with
one another, self-support. I mean, that’s sort of the lifeblood of
how people get support in Linux communities, not in calling up
somebody and paying 35 bucks. And if you look at most people who
work inside enterprises, they don’t call us. There’s some guy who
owns the incidents. They want to go to the Web. They want to
self-support. And so, what are the best practices? How do we use
community as a tool? How do we support community, so that if you’re
a guy trying to install Windows Server to do DNS in General Motors
and you’re not one of the guys who actually gets to call Microsoft,
how do you get that question answered?

“That’s all about broad customer connection. So one group
pioneers it. And the best practices get to be shared and
promulgated out across other groups.

“Q: Are you trying to do the Linux model one
better?

“A: There actually are more support forums
around Windows online today than there are Linux by a substantial
margin. But if you look at the percentage of all people who use
Windows who choose to use community, vs. the percentage of all
Linux users who do community, the percentage of all Linux users who
use community is higher than the percentage of all Windows users.
… The question isn’t to get some activity level. The question is
to make this really a lifeblood form of support, or to learn what
the best practice is in that dimension…”

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