[K12OSN] OT: News article

[Doug Simpson]

This is funny!
Read on with commentary
Story - - -

Microsoft CEO downplays Linux-Oregon connection

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer 
is less than impressed with a rival computer software developer based in 
Oregon.

Comment - Why *would* he be impressed?

The state is a hub for the Linux open source software - the chief rival 
to Microsoft Windows. Open source software, developed by a Finnish 
programmer named Linus Torvalds who now lives just south of Portland, is 
shared by its developers while Microsoft charges licensing fees for Windows.

Ballmer said open source may have a role in the technology world, but 
it's not leading the way.

Comment - If you ran a gas station would you tell everyone that they can 
get free gas over at another station?

"There's no innovation that we've seen come out of - at least Linux," 
Ballmer said Tuesday. "Linux is a clone of a 30-years-old operating 
system (called Unix)."

Coimment - The *entire linux thing* is innovation! Sure it may be a 
clone of a 30-year-old OS, but it has had that long to evolve and become 
robust, stable, and extremely versatile.  M$ keeps trying new things 
every couple of years all with the same result. . . buggy, unstable 
software.

	


	

Ballmer was in Oregon to help dedicate Portland State University's new 
engineering building. Microsoft donated $200,000 toward a $53 million 
upgrade of PSU's Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science, 
which includes the new $35 million engineering building and a new 
Microsoft lab in the engineering school.

Comment - Hold the phone! M$ donated $200,000 to this project?  That is 
3/1000ths of 1 percent!

Microsoft's involvement in the new facility coincides with growing 
fervor in Oregon around open source software.

Comment - running scared, perhaps?

Intel and IBM base their Linux development work in Oregon, and last year 
Google Inc. donated $350,000 to support open source research at Oregon 
State and PSU.

Comment - Google donated more than M$ and they aren't in the OS business 
at all!

Those developments caught Microsoft's attention, said Pamela Gesme 
Miller, the engineering school's external relations director, who 
solicited Microsoft's involvement in the new building.

"I think it kind of woke them up and they said, open source is taking 
over Oregon," Miller said. "Microsoft wants to be a player. They're 
thinking they've ignored Oregon a little too long."

Comment - Ignored? They're right next door, practically!

On Tuesday, Ballmer said Microsoft already is heavily involved in 
Oregon. He pointed to a company-sponsored study that calculated 
Microsoft technology generates $3 billion in spending annually in the state.

Comment - A sizeable portion of that spending is for M$ licensing. . 
.And the study was sponsored by. . . 

Although Microsoft employs only about 100 people in Oregon directly, 
Ballmer said the company has 2,700 business partners in the state, 
individual contractors and IT companies that employ about 13,000 people 
developing software and providing technology services using Microsoft 
products.

Comment - It takes that many to keep it working?

Open source activity pales in comparison, Ballmer said.

Comment - not if you keep in mind that FOSS is a worldwide operation, 
and yet fixes, patches and updates come out very fast in FOSS but in M$ 
you have to wait until they "get around to it" unless enough people scream.

"We make a much bigger economic impact in Oregon," he said. "Open source 
doesn't come from a company. It comes from the ether. That's part of its 
gestalt.

Comment - This is also it greatest advantage. It is not profit-based.

"But the only physical presence it appears to have anywhere in the world 
happens to be here in Oregon. So I suspect that contributes to the buzz 
factor."

Comment - Ballmer has been under a rock for the last 15 years. . .

JMO - YMMV

Roger wrote:

> On 5/10/06, Doug Simpson <veewee77 at alltel.net> wrote:
>
>> I didn't see any link, hence the question. . .
>>
>> Thanks
>>
> http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OR_BALLMER_OREGON_OROL-?SITE=OREUG&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT 
>
>
> I'm not sure how to create clickable links in gmail.  The URL is above.
>
> _______________________________________________
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