Overheard: Who does Microsoft view as its competitors?

Interestingly, he [Ballmer] identified his top competitors as Google, Apple and Linux.  Secondary foes included IBM, Oracle, Amazon and SAP. Jeff Bussgang, Microsoft VC Conference - Steve Ballmer’s View On The World

I started out reading an article on Microsoft’s new Research and Development center for enterprise search, went on to read what Steve Ballmer said about the economy and how it’s going to affect IT and ended up at Jeff Bussgang’s blog. I think Jeff’s is the only blog post I’ve read in ages that gives Ballmer credit for all he’s accomplished.