Whereas NetApps still keeps a firm grip on the dillutional 1% Linux penetration on desktops, Microsoft seems paralysed in terms of efforts to slow down the OpenSource progress.
Yesterday I had a look at some old Microsoft salespitches starring Mr. Ballmer and even though the modern version of Mr. Ballmer seems less irratic, the pitch more or less contains the same dinosauric message.
Embarrasing for Microsoft, but their main challenges are way more serious. There is no innovation, and their successforumlas have become their worst enemy. Where customers previously have been locked in, they are now being locked out.
The Microsoft customers who sticks to their beloved platform are missing out on innovation, streamlining, business opportunities and important cost-reductions that are imperative in hard times.
Meanwhile, Linux and OpenSource expands deeply into virtually every box with silicon in it. It does so in a cost efficient manor and hardware manufactors profits by more competitive pricing or better margins.
No matter whether the talk is about MobileTV, smartphones, netbooks, desktop, local servers or the cloud, the driving force is Gnu/Linux and OpenSource. Not Microsoft, not Apple.
Ladies and Gentlemen, OpenSource has pentetrated the market floor. And that’s just the beginning.
Just have a look at recent events:
- More Android phones
- Ubuntu are considering Android
- Dell are testing Android on Netbooks
- Moblin is happening
- Palm Pre due 06 June
- Symbian is opening up
- Multipoint X is due – soon
- Qt Mobility was launched today
- KDE 4.3 is a train just starting
- Gnome 3.0 is in the works
- The sky becomes filled with OpenSource/Linux clouds
- Businessanalysis tools are out there
- Healthcare takes a dip into OpenSource
Goverments are abandoning Microsoft, and where they have exclusive deals, OpenSource vendors are increasingly forcing open and free competition into the equation. One should by no means underestimate Microsoft, but they have a hard battle ahead.
Microsoft seems determined to cause problems for their users with their approach to ODF support. There is a significant change though.
As time goes by it becomes less of a OpenSource problem. On the contrary, it is a problem that Microsoft are inflicting on their very own userbase. It’s not our problem, it’s Microsoft’s.
