Linux Online - Microsoft's Ballmer slams open source

Microsoft's Ballmer slams open source


Publication:	The Globe and Mail	Date:	Jul 14 2004
Reporter:	Simon Avery

In a spirited and thunderous address, the head of Microsoft Corp. admitted that the company has much more work to do to improve software security, even as it rolled out several new products and strategies for combatting software viruses, which are attacking global information systems with greater frequency and sophistication.

“We're not perfect, we're not where we need to be, but we have velocity and purpose,” Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer of Microsoft, told several thousand people at a conference in Toronto.

Speaking for more than an hour, Mr. Ballmer also launched an impassioned attack on open-source software, tried to answer concerns about the long wait for the next Microsoft operating system, and fingered software that helps run small businesses as a multibillion-dollar growth opportunity.