Online Extra: Mills: Microsoft Is Just "Saber-Rattling"

Online Extra: Mills: Microsoft Is Just "Saber-Rattling": "Q: So what they're subbing out then isn't so much Windows but rather Office.

A [Mills]: Exactly. This is not a Windows vs. Linux discussion. It's really two different models, two different approaches to delivering collaboration function to business.
One approach, I think people are very familiar with. It's the classic heavy, expensive Microsoft desktop environment, with the prospects of having to convert to the latest versions to maintain support. That roadmap is a fairly familiar one to business buyers, and they've been on it for years -- frankly, with mixed reaction to the benefit of it. Costly. Expensive. Lots of fees paid to Microsoft. Heavy patch management. Virus control.
And we're offering the alternative. We're saying, 'Wait a minute. There's another way.' The model of the other way begins with recognizing that the browser/portal-based approaches have already yielded reduced costs. And that approach can be extended and enriched and made very functional and capable for different classes of work where a pure portal-based approach really isn't appropriate for the type of work because there's more complex collaboration to be done.
We're going to give you all the richness of collaboration that you saw from IBM historically with Notes, translated to the next generation of technology. That's a very powerful message."