在过去五年里微软开始逐渐转变了自己的公众形象，无论是在市场竞争中还是在对待竞争对手的态度上，虽然微软仍然是一家商用软件制造商，不过其对待开放性的态度却有了极大的转变，曾经在2008年的微软全球合作者大会上Steven Ballmer指出“开源并不等于简单的免费”，在今年的PDC大会结束后，微软首席软件工程师与多位媒体负责人进行了座谈，再次谈到了微软对待开放性的态度。

　　来自TechCruch的Steven Gillmor表示Google的智能手机操作系统Android是开放的，而微软Silverlight多媒体播放技术什么时候才能更加“开放”得以在 多个智能手机平台上实现，微软首席软件工程师Ray Ozzie不止一次地（至少四次）表示：“大家都是开放的，但同时又都不是开放的。”

　　Ozzie继续说：“我的意思是说，没有人会百分百开放。Android并不是100%开放，我们也不会。这里会有很多东西影响你的合作伙伴的商业模式。 Windows拥有极高的开放性品牌价值，我们并不控制别人编写的桌面应用程序，在数据方面我们也又开放性的传统，我们并不监控（用户存放在）桌面上的数 据。我们在向前迈进，我们会把Windows品牌特性带到手机中，而且会比现在更加开放。”

新闻来源:驱动之家

呵呵，我也来发一个
（原文发表在http://www.osnews.com/story/22646/2010_The_End_for_Steve_Ballmer_）

2010: The End for Steve Ballmer?
posted by Thom Holwerda on Tue 22nd Dec 2009 16:39 UTC
With the end of the year in sight, the great list-making time has come upon us. Newsweek makes ten predictions for 2010, and at number 9, they predict the end of the road for Steve Ballmer at Microsoft. I never really thought about it that much, but if you line up Microsoft's failures over the past years, it's actually a miracle his head hasn't rolled yet.

The list of things that have gone wrong for Microsoft the past years is pretty long. The biggest failure is of course Windows Vista. Not so much in the amount of money it has raked in, or the technological groundwork it laid for Windows 7 and future releases, but more because of the rather massive public relations damage it has caused. Windows Vista was a failure at the very heart of the company: the operating system business.

The other failures are well-known and documented: Google took Microsoft by surprise, leaving Microsoft in a ditch by the side of the virtual road. We're years and years on, and Microsoft is still trying to recover from Google's success - to relatively little avail. Related to this is the demise of Internet Explorer - once a genuinely better product than the competition, but now the laughing stock of the online world (and the thorn in the eye of web developers).

Then there's the mobile market. For all intents and purposes, Windows Mobile is dead. Sure, it may be kept standing by sticks and not-so-invisible strings, and if you squint really hard, you may not notice it, but it's absolutely no match whatsoever for Android and the webOS - let alone the iPhone. Windows Mobile as it stands today is a relic, and even though there is still quite a large number of phones running Windows Mobile, it can't hide the fact the old girl is not doing so well.

The MP3 is also one of those things where you're really wondering what Microsoft is doing there. The new Zune HD is indeed a very nice device, but is it really worth it to fund a product which is not even a blip on the worldwide radar of the MP3 player market? Why is Microsoft even investing money in this project?

Of course, it's not all bad. The XBox 360 is doing pretty well, and the company's server business is producing some very decent software. Windows Server 2003, 2008, and 2008 R2 have all been met with very positive reviews, and even here on OSNews, I've seen many a UNIX/Linux geek readily admit they're good server products, which is about as high a compliment you can get in the server world, I'd say. As a last plus point I'd definitely mention the massive interface revamp of Office 2007, instantly making all other offerings look archaic and cumbersome (try using the clumsy and cluttered OOo/Office 2003 UI after 2007 - it makes me shiver).

Overall though, Microsoft has not been doing well. Shares have nearly halved in value, and the company's public image is probably worse than it has ever been. The successful release of Windows 7 is starting to turn the tides for the company, but it remains to be seen how much of that can be attributed to Ballmer - or to the actual brains there, Steven Sinofsky.

As Newsweek notes, the big problem with trying to get rid of Ballmer is that he's been put in his position by Bill Gates. "The two have been pals since their undergraduate days at Harvard. If Gates wants to get rid of Ballmer, he'll have to craft some kind of graceful exit that lets his buddy save face," Newsweek writes, "Another problem: there's no heir apparent on the management team. Nevertheless, investors must be getting restless. Soon they'll start calling for a shake-up."

I have never liked Ballmer. I find him a very obnoxious person (professionally speaking - I have no idea what he's like in person); he's too loud and "present" for my tastes. I'd say that Microsoft needs a more charismatic personality at the top, someone who understands the concepts of subtlety and understatement - you know, like a certain other Steve.

Then again, I'm a complete moron with no knowledge or experience in business - I can only fall back upon common sense.