Competitive Analysis (Score 2, Interesting)

What Ballmer fails to crow about, nor fails to mention is the cost and expense of the initial Microsoft rollout.

Given the initial rollout cost in a Microsoft platform would be in the billions for a new rollout, it's not hard to conceive that reconfiguring an entire civic network structure to embrace open source technology would have considerable costs than continuing to limp along with an insecure, bloated, and closed source technology family. This is due, by and large, with Munich technicians having already gathered years of experiencing patching Windows environments every day, and so therefore they can do this much quicker than they had been doing so originally.

Embracing a platform may have its speed bumps, but the success and self satisfaction of being able to deploy secure clients and servers will soon outweigh any teething problems the Munich techs are currently experiencing.

It's early days yet, and Ballmer's criticisms of open source rollouts of this magnitude are truly smoke and mirrors if subject to the clarity of a true competitive analysis once all of the facts and figures have been submitted and tallied.