Ballmer: Where Microsoft is going to go
C|Net | at | by Mike
In his latest thinking about where he wants his company to go, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer has produced a document that is partly a sweeping business analysis and partly an exhortatory call to arms. In many respects, it was the mark of a vintage sales pro, urging his troops to concentrate their energies on the challenge presented by the open-source software movement. But against the backdrop of what Ballmer described as still uncertain IT demand, this was more than the usual rah-rah pitch.
With Linux no longer inhabiting the computing fringes, Ballmer finds himself forced to more vigorously pitch to customers the advantages of Windows and Microsoft's other software. It was a departure from the tenor of his annual memo to the troops last year, when Ballmer focused on everything but Linux and open source.