"Microsoft CEO and President, Steve Ballmer was happy as a clam today at his WindowsWorld keynote in San Francisco's Gates Center [...] At this point in his keynote speech, there was a disturbance in the front as a group of demonstrators started shouting "GNU-HURD! GNU-HURD! GNU-HURD!" The police quickly hustled them away..."

Microsoft’s nervousness is very telling. In the past few days alone, the word about the departure of two Vice Presidents came out. They join a large-scale and ongoing exodus. How does Microsoft respond? It attacks and shamelessly accuses its rivals, of course.

After reading an InformationWeek article about Steve Ballmer suggesting, yet again, that GNU/Linux users - or at least the Red Hat users - owe Microsoft money for violating patents he, yet again, refuses to disclose. But Ballmer is missing something - or maybe I am.