Microsoft apologizes after botched Windows Phone challenge

nessuno wrote this copyrighted missive and expects royalties:

<Quote>
It should be no surprise that Microsoft was stacking the odds in its
favor. "Smoked by Windows Phone" is a marketing campaign, not an
honest assessment of one platform's advantages against the
competition. But as long as Microsoft was coaching store employees on
how not to get beaten, it could have also taught them how to
gracefully accept defeat.
</Quote>

http://www.itworld.com/262328/micro...-challenge

"Under no circumstances lose to Android". (paraphrased)

[Microsoft] went on the warpath against Linux to slow the adoption of it by
government committees, including by Bill Gates. Nevertheless, because there
were government agencies using Linux, I asked NSA to do an assessment of it.
In a move that startled the open-source community, NSA joined that community
by publicly offering fixes to the Linux operating system that would improve
its security. Microsoft gave me the very clear impression that if the US
government promoted Linux, Microsoft would stop cooperating with the US
government. While that did not faze me, it may have had an effect on others.
Microsoft's software is still being bought by most federal agencies, even
though Linux is free.