Ballmer’s visit to Oz

While I think that Gates and Ballmer are right to take a proactive stance against piracy and should be concerned about its growth. Touring specific regions just doesn’t strike me as a great way to keep Linux off of their backs, though. That is as different as apples and oranges. Linux is going to keep growing and to be honest, continue to drive its own market share as time goes on.

On a two-day visit to Sydney, Australia, to meet with key customers and partners, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is being kept on a very short leash - with his tightly-scripted agenda including a closed-to-the-media presentation at midday tomorrow to the Committee for the Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) entitled The Amazing Race: Innovation with Impact.

Ballmer is in Sydney to give corporate executives the Redmond view of “innovation with impact”.

His trip - which ends tomorrow - comes as Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates also tours Asia-Pacific countries. Gates’ visit includes Singapore and Thailand, with other nations believed to be on the list.

Ballmer’s mystifying media lockout was a joint decision between CEDA and Microsoft, the latter’s public relations agency claimed. However, ZDNet Australia understands CEDA acted on a Microsoft request.

By contrast, a presentation by Gates in Singapore on 1 July - covering forthcoming launches of products such as SQL Server 2005, Visual Studio 2005 and Longhorn - is open to all. [Read the rest]