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Ballmer makes McCain look bright when it comes to technology
12 comments- TAGS:Ballmer, business, business model, Microsoft, open source
- IT TOPICS:Business Intelligence, Linux, Management, Open Source, Operating Systems, Software, Windows & Microsoft
It's the fashion in some circles these days to make fun of John McCain because he can barely use the Internet. While he hasn't described it as a bunch of "tubes," that honor belongs to Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, McCain is an analog kind of guy in a digital world. Still, no one really expects McCain to be a techno geek. On the other hand, we do expect Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's CEO, to at least have a clue about technology. Whoops. Turns out we were wrong.
Back in February, Ballmer was answering questions at Microsoft's annual Minority Student Day in Redmond. One brave student, emboldened perhaps because he was asking his question remotely from Charlotte, NC, asked, "In the future, does Microsoft plan to do an open-source version of Windows?"
Well, we all know the answer to that one. Ballmer said, "No."
But then, bless his little heart, he decided to expand on his answer. Fortunately, Todd Bishop, ace Microsoft reporter, was on the scene to report what the Ballmer said.
"Well, what does that mean? An open-source version of Windows would mean not only would we publish Windows source code, we would make it free. That's what open source means. We wouldn't be hosting Minority Student Day if we open-source Windows because we wouldn't have enough profit to pay people, let alone invite in people from the community. I'm not saying open-source is a bad thing, but it doesn't pay the bills in this company, so we can't embrace that way of doing things. ... We give out free soda pop to everybody who works here. We make our stuff free, people gotta give back the soda pop -- it's just inconsistent with what we do around here."
Wow. Does Ballmer understand open-source business models or what? I'm sure Red Hat, Novell and Oracle's stock owners will now sell their stocks immediately since the multi-billion dollar companies clearly have been flimflamming everyone with their open-source Linux products.
Perhaps when Richard M. Stallman first said, "Free software is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of free as in free speech, not as in free beer," he should have said free as in 'free soda.' I'm sure Ballmer would have got it then.
Then again, maybe not. It's not just that Ballmer doesn't understand the first thing about open-source software. We already knew that. It's that he seems able to ignore basic business realities as well. Companies are already making billions from open source. Surely, he can understand that even if at a gut level he really doesn't understand how they do it.
McCain knows he's no techno-wizard. He likes to call himself a Neanderthal. I admire him for that. He's willing to admit that he who he is. Ballmer, on the other hand, likes to pretend he's a worthy successor to Bill Gates at, like it or lump it, the most important technology company in the world. He's not, and he certainly isn't willing to admit that he can't fill Gates' shoes.
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