That’s the question Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s CEO, is trying to answer every morning when he goes to work. On the server software side, Windows Server is doing well, especially with the Exchange e-mail server and the unheralded but very good collaboration server, SharePoint.  These products have matured, they’re relatively easy to set up and manage [...]

So says Richard Stallman the father of the Free Software Foundation. He makes a simple argument: By using Cloud Computing applications you surrender your life (data) to some big company you can’t trust.  You’re no longer in control.  Conversely, if you keep everything on your (Linux) desktop, you’re the master of your own destiny.
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This [...]

The Other Steve, Microsoft’s Ballmer, just treated us to another paean to open systems. This was last week at the Churchill Club, a Silicon Valley schmoozing institution.  There, we meet, gossip, drink, dine and watch a never ending and never boring parade of industry figures submitting themselves to soft-ball interviews by local notables of suitable [...]

Not browser, OS.  More about that in a moment.
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But, first, our kind, venture capitalists, loves disruption. When the established companies take too much room on the Petri dish, there is no way for a new bacterium to prosper.  When a Microsoft dominates a market, to pick a random example, launching a competitor becomes prohibitively expensive.  [...]