Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer recently gave a presentation in which he said that GNU/Linux has more market share and poses a greater threat to Microsoft's profitability than does Apple.

Microsoft has warned investors about new threats to its precious client-side tech ecosystem, by listing Linux vendors Canonical and Red Hat as rivals in its annual Form 10-K filing. The software giant also acknowledged Apple’s impressive market share grab in the US, where it now commands fourth place for total shipments.

osnews.com: Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer had some interesting things to say yesterday about which companies Microsoft sees as its competitors in the client operating system space. You'd think Apple was their number one competitor - and you'd be wrong. Microsoft sees two other competitors as their primary adversaries.

According to recent IDC reports Microsoft does not own the enterprise market; favoring UNIX and Linux Operating platforms (read below). Although one needs to be reminded that it is not Microsoft’s primary market. It is the end-user that Microsoft is concerned with and it has been that same market that has helped Microsoft get to the position it is currently in. But does that really matter?

All this fuss about Google ChromeOS. Is it a threat to Microsoft ? Is it a threat to the Ubuntu? (funny nobody wonders if that’s a threat to Apple, especially considering everything is a threat to Apple, even being able to take DRM free songs *out* of the freaking iPod)

I get to hear about the biggest threat to Microsoft's hegemony and market dominance quite a bit. It often goes something like this: "Linux isn't Microsoft's biggest threat, Google is."

Linux vendor Red Hat sure doesn't seem to like Microsoft much. Red Hat is now alleging that Microsoft is not committed to the path of peace with open source software vendors.

Top-dog OS on the enterprise desktop? Linux and Apple had a golden chance to grab that title, and boy did they blow it! Despite having nothing better to offer enterprise customers than the ridiculous Vista or the ancient XP for the past two years, Microsoft still rules the enterprise desktop. And with Windows 7, that reign is set to continue.

Steve Ballmer recently caught flack for essentially saying that Apple users pay an Apple tax of $500 for buying Macs compared to PCs. Does that mean that Linux users are forced to pay a Microsoft tax every time they buy a PC with Microsoft software on it?