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4 Linux and open source

In recent years Linux has become an increasingly popular server operating system, particularly for the low-margin, price-sensitive hosting market, and it has begun to make inroads to the desktop market. Wal-Mart now sells a cheap consumer PC running Linspire (formerly known as Lindows, renamed after a trademark challenge from Microsoft), which is a version of Linux made to look and work like Microsoft Windows. Recently, several governmental users have announced the conversion of their desktop computers from Windows to Linux, including the country of Brazil; the city of Munich, Germany; and France's Ministry of Equipment and Transport.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has stated that Linux is a "tough competitive force... It's non-traditional, it's free and it's cheap. We have to educate people why what they pay for [our offerings] is more than offset by the value we deliver. We used to be the cheap guys. We were cheaper than Novell, cheaper than Oracle. We can't do that with this one." (Reported in CRN.com, June 17, 2002)

Microsoft has been using various channels on the Internet and in popular media to fight the open source movement, usually with the help of think-tank organizations funded by Microsoft. One of their main claims is that the GPL license (the copyright license that Linux and much open-source software is released under) is a viral license that threatens intellectual property. They also argue that open source software is less secure, more expensive, and more attractive to terrorists than proprietary software. Supporters of open source assert that Microsoft's tactics amount to a campaign of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt). [10].

Microsoft has also facilitated a legal attack on Linux companies by licensing Unix from The SCO Group [11]. SCO, which is currently suing IBM and other defendants, claims that IBM devalued the SCO operating system by taking SCO proprietary code and releasing it as part of Linux.

In November 2004, Ballmer stated that Linux violates more than 228 software patents and that "someday, for all countries that are entering the WTO, somebody will come and look for money owing to the rights for that intellectual property. ... We think our software is far more secure than open-source software. It is more secure because we stand behind it, we fixed it, because we built it. Nobody ever knows who built open-source software." [12] He provided no details on which patents have been violated, nor did he mention the patent lawsuits currently facing Microsoft. [13] Microsoft later issued a statement saying that Ballmer was citing a study written by a risk-management company. The author of the study responded by saying that his study found 283 potential patent violations, but that such allegations are a long way from a court finding merit in them, and that proprietary software is at equal or greater legal risk. [14]

Meanwhile, Microsoft has placed three projects under an open source license: the Windows Installer XML (WiX) toolset, the Windows Template Library (WTL) and Flexwiki.

5 Controversy

Main article: Common criticisms of Microsoft

Microsoft has been the focus of much controversy in the computer industry, especially since the 1980s. Among the more frequently criticized areas are:

Ease of use: Microsoft has been accused of allowing the user interface of its products to become inconsistent and overly complicated, requiring interactive " wizards" to function as an extra layer between the user and the interface. This violates the anti-modality principles of early user interface design (the principle that the user should be forced to do one particular thing as little as possible).
Security: Microsoft products (such as Internet Explorer) are seen as overly vulnerable to computer viruses and malicious attacks, both for the simple reason of monoculture, and because of design decisions which value ease of use over security.
Business practices: Microsoft is believed to engage in unfair and anticompetitive business tactics. The findings-of-fact from a federal antitrust case have affirmed this, and Microsoft has lost other lawsuits in which competitors accused it of stealing code, making Microsoft operating systems incompatible with their products, or using predatory pricing and licensing tactics.
Total cost of ownership: Microsoft software is seen as more expensive to purchase, use, and maintain than competitors' software. As the price of PCs has fallen, the price of Microsoft Windows has not.

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Microsoft WindowsImage use policy. Microsoft Windows is a range of commercial operating environments for personal computers. The range was first introduced by Microsoft in 1985 and eventually has come to dominate the world personal computer market. All recent versions of	MicrosoftMicrosoft Corporation , headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA, is the world's largest software company (with over 50,000 employees in various countries, as of May 2004). Microsoft develops, manufactures, licenses and supports a wide range of software	Microsoft ExcelMicrosoft Excel is a spreadsheet program written and distributed by Microsoft for computers using the Microsoft Windows operating system and Apple Macintosh computers. It is overwhelmingly the dominant spreadsheet application available for these platforms
Microsoft WordMicrosoft Word is a word processor program from Microsoft. It was originally written by Richard Brodie for IBM PC computers running DOS in 1983. Later versions were created for the Apple Macintosh ( 1984), SCO UNIX and Microsoft Windows ( 1989). It became	Microsoft OfficeMicrosoft Office is a series of suites of productivity programs created by Microsoft and developed for Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh operating systems. As well as the office applications, it includes associated servers and Web-based services.	Microsoft antitrust caseMicrosoft was a widely publicized antitrust trial in which the US Department of Justice (DOJ), joined by twenty U. states, alleged that Microsoft abused monopoly power in its handling of operating system sales and web browser sales. The DOJ and states fil
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