Steve Ballmer Does An About-Face On Linux

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Steve Ballmer famously called Linux a "cancer" back when he felt the open-source OS was a threat. Apparently now he just loves Linux. :rolleyes:


Speaking on Wednesday night at a dinner hosted by Fortune magazine, Ballmer said the position was right for the time, but the threat from Linux was now "in the rearview mirror." "The company made a ton of money by fighting that battle very well," he said. "It's been incredibly important to the company's revenue stream" to maintain its position with its own Windows operating system.
 
I'm not seeing anything in that article indicating he "loves Linux", so much as he loves that MS is now selling MS products that run on Linux. I don't really see that as an about-face so much as an acknowledgement that MS can make money on that platform instead of disregarding it completely. Frankly, that's a good thing. I live in an almost entirely MS-driven ecosystem in my day-to-day work but I'm pretty excited about things like this. I would love to learn more Linux stuff.
 
Probably because the rate of Linux adoption is growing. It's just not growing in the home desktop market, but instead it's the server market. The way Windows 10 is going I wouldn't be surprised if people were starting to make the switch.

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cortexodus said:
I'm not seeing anything in that article indicating he "loves Linux", so much as he loves that MS is now selling MS products that run on Linux. I don't really see that as an about-face so much as an acknowledgement that MS can make money on that platform instead of disregarding it completely. Frankly, that's a good thing. I live in an almost entirely MS-driven ecosystem in my day-to-day work but I'm pretty excited about things like this. I would love to learn more Linux stuff.
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I agree with your assessment.
 
Maybe if Microsoft stopped hosing companies over on licensing they wouldn't be as eager to go to Linux.
 
I continue to use Windows at home for games and will for some time, but at work I've fully transitioned to Linux for daily use. For the rare times I actually need Windows, like checking a Watchguard device through the server manager, I log in to a VDI. Quite happy with the change.
 
I can't see why Balmer's input matters any more, or has ever for matter. I use (forced to) MS products on a daily basis at work and they all give me headaches. I feel the same way toward Balmer; he gave me headaches with his asinine antics and hypocritical speeches. Now he is back-peddling his attitude toward Linux "only" because MS has products that can run on Linux.

If 90% of the big name games would run on Linux, I would drop Windows. Steam has, what, 2000 games that run on Linux now? Just gotta get the vid card drives up to snuff.
 
Grimdaria said:
If 90% of the big name games would run on Linux, I would drop Windows. Steam has, what, 2000 games that run on Linux now? Just gotta get the vid card drives up to snuff.
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As of right now, Steam lists 3978 games for SteamOS/Linux, and 17041 for Windows, with all of the SteamOS/Linux games available for Windows. Linux on the desktop all these years still just isn't there yet, not for those that want access to the bulk of x86 desktop software and the latest and greatest hardware support. Yes, Windows has it's issues, but Linux on the desktop isn't exactly the panacea that some have portrayed it for two decades now. Sure it can be useful but it's in now way a Windows replacement on the desktop at this time. Unless it ever gets sizable market share, at least 10 times what it has now, it never will be.

Anything is possible, even after all this time. But if Linux desktop really were what some say about it, it should have dominated the desktop long ago. It certainly should have seen a sizable piece of the desktop market.
 
heatlesssun said:
Anything is possible, even after all this time. But if Linux desktop really were what some say about it, it should have dominated the desktop long ago. It certainly should have seen a sizable piece of the desktop market.
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And every time Microsoft messes with the GUI like they did with Windows 8 and even Windows 10 to some extent, the most chance Linux has on the desktop.
I see the Free Windows 10 upgrades as part of Microsoft's attempt to keep people on Windows.
 
nutzo said:
And every time Microsoft messes with the GUI like they did with Windows 8 and even Windows 10 to some extent, the most chance Linux has on the desktop.
I see the Free Windows 10 upgrades as part of Microsoft's attempt to keep people on Windows.
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I would agree. However I think the UI changes to Windows 8.x and 10 where necessary, if not well implemented at least in Windows 8.x. Tablets and 2 in 1s are predicated to become a big part of the PC market through the end of the decade and even last year represented around 16 million devices. MNKyDeth's post is interesting because it the blog referenced talks about Microsoft's recent patent application around Continuum which is key part of all the new Windows 10 stuff, universal Windows Apps, single source store for apps across devices, etc. It does seem that the "one OS to rule them all" idea is a much bigger deal than many though back with Windows 8 was announced in 2011.

And yes, the free Windows upgrade was certainly in part about keeping people on Windows 10 and using things like the Windows Store to generate new revenue streams in lieu of OS licensing.
 
MS has marketing superiority. For example; people see the "Games for Windows" crap on big name titles and automatically know they need Windows to play it. Since DirectX makes it far easier to develop games for Windows and since game development studios need to get paid, they are going with what will run their games on the vast majority of PCs.

Companies who develop Linux-based software/OS/etc, really don't advertise much outside of the Enterprise world. So you probably won't see a "Games for Linux" logo on any big titles any time soon. These companies just don't have the budget to advertise to the general population like MS does.
 
Grimdaria said:
Companies who develop Linux-based software/OS/etc, really don't advertise much outside of the Enterprise world. So you probably won't see a "Games for Linux" logo on any big titles any time soon. These companies just don't have the budget to advertise to the general population like MS does.
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This has been rapidly changing over the past year or so. It's not with trumpets and parades, but it's becoming a more advertised platform. ex. Xcom-2 at the bottom.
SteamOS and Tux logos are more prominent on day 1 releases than in the past.
 
You can thank Gabe Newell for that, he isn't a Microsoft fan and he used to work for Microsoft.
 
Grimdaria said:
I can't see why Balmer's input matters any more, or has ever for matter. I use (forced to) MS products on a daily basis at work and they all give me headaches. I feel the same way toward Balmer; he gave me headaches with his asinine antics and hypocritical speeches. Now he is back-peddling his attitude toward Linux "only" because MS has products that can run on Linux.
If 90% of the big name games would run on Linux, I would drop Windows. Steam has, what, 2000 games that run on Linux now? Just gotta get the vid card drives up to snuff.
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Ballmer is that fat uncle that shows up at thanksgiving and always tells the same stories, with embellishments that always makes him the hero; when the truth was he is a complete zero. Then another uncle or an aunt will say "Remember when that little girl from down the street beat you up. That was funny as hell".
 
Remember one of Microsoft's mantra - Embrace, Extend, Extinguish. So they're starting the "Embrace" step regarding Linux....be on your guard! As others postulate, this is probably because of the considerable rise in Linux interest not just on the server market, but on consumer PCs as well. Microsoft wants to lock people into the Windows 10 platform and beyond, as well as tech like DX12 and distribution like the Windows Store - their new policies on selling games sold on Windows Store etc.. as "apps" in a user-inaccessible folder is proof (goodbye modding etc..). Valve predicted this years ago and has been moving to ensure that Steam remains cross platform and along with the likes of AMD, set up Vulkan as a next-gen OpenGL; an alternative to DX12 lock-in that allows you to easily port your title to Win/Mac/Linux as well as iOS/Android mobile! SteamOS, SteamMachines, Steam for Linux , plus the multitude of developers embracing Linux support (AAAs and indies alike) throws a wrench in Microsoft's plans. Furthermore, users who are unhappy with Win10's policies/privacy being more willing than ever to use Linux as their OS (or at least dual boot) probably is making MS wary.

Beware the poisoned olive branch from MS. They have a huge amount of money they're willing to dump into squelching the competition, even if it isn't profitable for them to do so individually - remember what they did to Nokia and the MaemoOS!
 
JustinCorrigible said:
I continue to use Windows at home for games and will for some time, but at work I've fully transitioned to Linux for daily use. For the rare times I actually need Windows, like checking a Watchguard device through the server manager, I log in to a VDI. Quite happy with the change.
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There are more and more people like you. MS makes some big bucks on server software, as market share, as Linux increases it will be interesting to see what happens. MS just announced SQL Server on Linux, so I wonder if they will start making their store games work on Linux as people replace their video cards with DX 12 and beyond. Windows will be around for emulation and a few PCs left to run. It's hard to figure out what MS plans are, they flip flop and now seem to embrace Linux to a degree, deep down they probably hate and want it crushed, but it won't go away. I wonder if they have concluded that the best way would be to let windows 10 stay basically the same going forward with little if any real major changes, and then slide some business to Linux where the money will begin rolling in from lots of sales of new applications, forget the OS let someone else do it.
 
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Osirus said:
For fuck sake, what a bunch of moronic nuttery. That site looks like InfoWars for Open Source software zealots.
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I read that entire article and was exactly how I felt too. Holy crap, it was one long "why doesn't everyone else see it's the Illuminati?" rant.
 
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