Gates targets Linux in Comdex keynote
eWeek | at | by Mike
In keeping with the enterprise IT focus that Comdex organizers are striving to achieve, Gates spent much less time than usual on end-user computing products and experiences. Instead, he positioned Microsoft's enterprise platform strategy against IBM's combination of Linux platforms and service-intensive offerings.
He showed a video parody of "The Matrix" in which Steve Ballmer-"the hacker Steve-O"-was offered a choice between a massive Big Blue Pill bearing a Linux penguin logo, or a more comfortably-sized red pill bearing a Windows logo. "You take the blue pill," said Gates in the character of Morpheus, "and you wake up to find an army of IT consultants running your company."