[macwilf]

@EPonj; I do not think that 90% chose Windows. They just chose a PC and it so happens that Windows was installed on it.
As for a monopoly, I still think that it is the first time in history that one company has dominated the market in such a degree, globally.
Globally. That is something else than national telephone companies in their day and time.

But as for openness and choice; I guess that if the prison is large enough, the prisoners will start to mistake it for the free world and that the people roaming wild outside the walls, are the prisoners. That is the Orwellian twist to Microsoftʼs dominance. That, and the manager og the prison talking about freedom of choice to the inmates:)

[coat]

Lets see here - people did not have a choice. In most situations they decisions were made by "someone" in the IT department. Many resisted but the IT mafia prevailed given that they were making the decisions and the rank and file had no choice. Early on this forced people to MS machines at home for compatibility - but this is not the case anymore. MS is now paying the price for poor decisions and bad product strategies.

[dougoftheabaci]

This is the equivalent of Fort Knox telling your local bank it's going overboard on the whole security thing or the Vatican telling people it's wrong to kill someone just because they don't agree with you.
Seriously, this from the company with a long and well documented history of opposing open source and who actually laughed at the "novel" idea of using WebKit.

[Photonerd]

What a complete jackass. How to the board members continue to allow this guy (a walking cartoon) to run this company?

[JakeT]

Yeah, he wants every one else to be open, so that he can take advantage of it.

He should start by making Microsoft products open.

[Rhywun]

> What's not "open" about Apple's hardware and software?
[/quote]
To Ballmer and his lackeys in the phone industry, "open" apparently means "90% market share". Also, "competition" is spun as "market fragmentation", and "interoperable applications" means "Windows-only". Oh, and "successful" means "#1 market leader" and has nothing to say about "profit" or "quality".

[wardoggie]

The last three paragraphs of the original article are comedy gold!





Also, when the other Steve says, "Openness is central because it's the foundation of choice," he really means "We can only beat them at our game. They're playing a different game and consumers think it's a lot more fun!"

[david_w_b]

By this standard every company is a monopoly. Let's sue McDonald's for having a monopoly on McRibs! No no no! A monopoly isn't on a particular product, it is on a particular kind of product or service. If 75% of all new computers come with Windows pre-installed that is a monopoly. If 100% of all Macs come with Mac OS X installed, that isn't a monopoly.
Message was edited by: Chris Breen

[rudge]

Balmer! Pot! Kettle! Black!

[Grapho]

EPonj said:

"I agree that no single company can create all the hardware and software. Openness is central because it's the foundation of choice."
I agree too.

"Dude, your company built an empire on an effective monopoly."
Never been a monopoly. Apple has always been around and had all the cards to compete. They just didn't succeed. Hurts, doesn't it?

10% Market share and growing, 25 billion dollars in the back and you call this not succeeding.

Quote

"Here's the thing: the people have choice; they're just not choosing you. Hurts, don't it?"
nearly 90% did choose MS.

Sure, and the other 10% are happy. :-)

[XMattingly]

I don't think it's just the quality of Windows of late that has eroded consumer confidence in Microsoft. Steve Ballmer's notorious inability for straight talk and an agenda that seems to shift whichever way the wind blows (which happens to be whichever direction his mouth is pointed at the moment) are reason enough for customers - current and potential - to jump ship from the the M$ hegemony.

[Xenu]

Ballmer: "Please be more open Apple, it's a recession and we are running out of things to copy."

[WarrenS]

"All the better to copy you my dear!" says big bad Ballmer to lil' red Apple.

[bousozoku]

Is Windows Mobile (wasn't it called WinCE originally and made you wince?) any more open that the iPhone OS? I don't believe so.
Symbian (now owned by Nokia) is the most open and Google's Android has differing levels of openness, depending on who you are in the development world.
Microsoft was built on poorly-written software, long before they had an operating system. The fact that IBM gave them an opportunity shifted things greatly. The fact that Digital Research didn't jump on that opportunity shifted things, also.
If Microsoft turned Windows into an open source project as is, they'd probably be named in more lawsuits than they already are for using someone else's work. Apple might fare better but would probably be in trouble also.
Kettle, meet pot.