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For six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul

Monday, March 01, 2004

Ballmer chuckles over Linux woes (Open source proving expensive Munich struggling with new system)

Toronto Star: "Steve Ballmer, chief executive of Microsoft Corp., appears to take delight in the troubles that Munich is having as it switches 14,000 city computers from Windows to a rival Linux operating system. The German city, roughly comparable in size to Toronto and just as strapped for cash, decided nine months ago to embrace the open-source software as a way to lower costs, improve competition in the marketplace and make the city less reliant on the world's largest software company ... Today, Munich's Linux switchover is proving more costly and complex than anticipated, according to news reports out of Germany. You can't blame Ballmer for feeling a bit of schadenfreude, as the Germans would say. 'They're saying it's more expensive,' Ballmer said. 'All of a sudden it's more expensive now to use the Linux solution than the Windows solution' ... Ballmer said governments that abandon Microsoft are more interested in making a political statement than using the best and most affordable software. 'The people who are making political decisions instead of business decisions, we're going to lose some,' said Ballmer. 'The people who are making business decisions based on where are the applications, what is the value, what is the lowest cost of ownership, we're not losing them. For us, anything that becomes a political issue, nobody wins them all on merit.'"

[ Posted at 10:20 AM | Permalink ]