Rusty:
Ballmer, speaking at the company's annual meeting for financial analysts, said the combination of Internet technologies, the Java programming language, database-driven application development, and growth in use of the Linux operating system is threatening Microsoft's ability to attract programmers to Windows.
I don't know whether Ballmer believes that or not, but I think it's pretty clear that in this instance he's speaking exclusively to the courts and the DOJ. Microsoft has used earnings announcements and surrounding events to be manipulative so many times that, as somebody said, they've lost their credibility. It's like the old "Island of Liars" logic puzzles in which you have to find your way on an island where the only thing you know for sure is that no inhabitant ever utters a true sentence.
(Edit: Viz. "What Is The Name Of This Book" by logician Raymond Smullyan, Simon & Schuster 1978).
If you got Steve in a meeting where money was involved, I strongly suspect he'd sing an unrecognizably different tune, to the effect that Microsoft's Windows monopoly is growing stronger by the minute. (He'd be wrong, but that's what he'd say.)
Regards,
--QwikSand |
