Scott tells Microsoft how it can compete against Open Source

MS can't compete with Open Source when OSS Gives most of the good stuff away for free..like MySQL,PostgreSQL while MS cripples its "free" version like SQL Express and thats why the Express Editions are free and coming out..yup

I'd actually disagree. Microsoft can make a shot at competing with open source -- they need to do it differently than they have (which, imho, basically amounts to FUD) but I actually think it would be good for OSS. Just as the competition from OSS has made Microsoft better so will the competition from Microsoft make OSS better. Competition is, without question, a good thing.

How hard is it to understand the more sh1t you throw at your competitors the deeper you bury yourself?

Leave them alone and concentrate on building great products and a loyal customer base, that's the only advice I can give you.

And no, pointing to others BS and FUD doesn't exempt you from culpability.

It's kinda hard to compete with 2000 piece of software when their is same or better quality free OSS out there.

Perhaps the best thing Microsoft could do for itself, and maybe for the community as well, is make more software Shared Source. How about loosening up the Express editions?

Best thing they can do is offer more products. Here me out on this, look at Apple. They sell lots of software at cheap prices. So while 50 dollars here, 100 there doesn't seem like a lot, it's better than being asked 400 for an entire suite!

The majority of people who use office will only use word, start unbundling and have a larger sku of software. forget the suite, make it a la carte.

if only they would listen :(

Companies are already hiring core developers on important open-source projects. These developers don't need to quit working on current projects to get paid. I wonder if many of them would enjoy working at MS.

Scott suggests:

* Microsoft Desktop: It Just Works Better

I give some more justification over at Scott's, but basically: I say fine, MS would have a strong position *if they could make that true*.

Long term, I think MS's best interests would probably be best served on giving up on 1980's style pay-for shrinkwrap software altogether, and applying their innovative capabilities to find new business models in the new environment. This would probably involve direct involvement in open source initiatives (such as the Open Document Format) rather than expending energy on unwinnable battles based around erecting proprietary barriers.

nice link, thanks!

MS could easily compete with Open Source if they stopped viewing it as a personal attack, understood it was here to stay, and that there is money, and lots of it, to be made working with open source and other !Windows platforms in a cooperative manner, not in its current "FORCE THEM TO USE WINDOWS OR PUNISH THEM LIKE THE SOBs THEY ARE!!!" mode.

Of course, what are the chances of MS doing this with the current leadership? None. Zero. Not "low", not "highly unlikely" but "none". BallmerGates, and it appears Ozzie has gotten sucked into this, (he must have forgotten that Notes' support for a wide range of platforms was a large reason for its success), will never allow MS to deal with !Windows platforms talking to Windows as anything but dangerous threats to be put down as viciously as possible. The ONLY exceptions to this are the Mac BU, with costs MS almost nothing, makes them buckets of money, and is useful anti-trust fodder, (I'm sure the fact that a very small group of people has a better release and quality of release history than the main Office teams must stick in their craw) and the various internet - based products, where they look like crackheads if they make it IE on Windows only, and again, useful anti-trust fodder.

As long as the insecure, ego-driven teenagers that are MS's current leadership are running the company, MS will keep making every mistake it has and is making over, and over again, because they are incapable of growing up and realizing that MS is a business, nothing more, and they need to start acting like grownups.

Hopefully, MS's board will find wisdom and hire their own version of Gerstner when the current set of prats finally retires.

The key to competing with open source is realizing that most successful open source projects are funded by companies that are trying to undercut Microsoft in a surreptitious manner. Firefox is a good example. It is funded by Google and other competitors of Microsoft.

So Microsoft should do two things:

1) Remind legislators that Microsoft and the whole ecosystem around Microsoft products contributes billions and billions of tax dollars to government and open source does not.

2) Seek out and undercut the pricing of key products that compete with the companies trying to destroy Microsoft.

"...some advice for Microsoft on his blog."

Please, Roberto, call that for what it is: a job application to MSFT!

Oh bullshit bruce. Open Source contributes huge amounts of tax dollars too. When a company is able to run its web presence on open source because they can afford time more than money, that's Open Source contributing to the tax base. When companies are able to build businesses around Open Source, as thousands are able to, then that's Open Source contributing huge amounts of money to the tax base.

As well, selling below cost so you can destroy competition is rather illegal. Ask Wal-Mart.

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What Is DotNetNuke?

DotNetNuke is an open-source content management system ideal for creating and deploying projects such as commercial websites, corporate intranets and extranets, and online publishing portals. It is also a project with a vision: to evolve its software through human participation and the sharing of knowledge.

DotNetNuke is provided as open-source software, licensed under a BSD-style agreement. In general, this license grants the general public permission to obtain the software free-of-charge. It also allows individuals to do whatever they wish with the application framework, both commercially and non-commercially, with the simple requirement of giving credit back to the DotNetNuke project community.

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DotNetNuke is the Web of the Future.

DotNetNuke is the Web of the Future. Ha ha ha. DotNetNuke sucks and you know it!