Cody Taylor

Microsoft assigns “taksforces” to fight GNU/Linux adoption (Wal-Mart in this case)

nerdyH writes “As early as last quarter, Microsoft admitted that Linux and netbooks were eating into its fat profits. Recently, it came home, with the software giant announcing its first-ever layoffs. LinuxDevices interviewed Linux Foundation Director Jim Zemlin on Linux’s role in Microsoft’s misfortunes. Zemlin sums it up pretty well: ‘Companies can offer their own branded software platform based on Linux. If Microsoft is getting 75 percent margins, you would like some of that high-margin business, too.'”

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Elektroschock writes “According to Russian media, the Russian Government is going to develop a National Operating System (Google translation; Russian original) to lower its dependencies on foreign software technology licensing. The Russian plan will base its efforts on Linux and expects a worldwide impact. Microsoft is also involved in the roundtable process that led to the recommendation. The Chinese government successfully lowered its Microsoft licensing costs through an early investment in a national Linux distribution. I wonder if other large markets, such as the European Union, will also develop their own Linux distributions or join in the Russian initiative.”

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Here is the e-mail that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sent to employees this morning, as the company announced poor earnings and major layoffs.

The next major update to Microsoft’s Windows Vista operating system could arrive as late as May or June 2009, months later than originally expected.

snydeq writes “The number of bugs in technical documentation for Microsoft communication protocols continues to grow, according to court documents filed for ongoing antitrust oversight of the company in the US. Problems with the technical documentation — which includes 1,660 identified bugs as of Dec. 31, up from 1,196 bugs on Nov. 30 — remain the major complaint from lawyers representing the group of 19 states that joined the US Department of Justice’s antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft. Lawyers for the states have complained repeatedly that technical documentation issues are opening faster than Microsoft can close them. Nearly 800 Microsoft employees are working on the more than 20,000 pages of technical documentation, according to the court documents filed Wednesday.”

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Today, Microsoft is announcing its biggest layoff ever and Sun is quietly laying off the first of what may turn out to be an additional 6,000 employees. Red Hat? Total year-over-year up 17%. Novell? Its Linux sales in 2008 were up by 38%. Which companies do you think are doing better?