No, it’s not what you think. Though we have no doubt Mr. Gates has applied the four-letter-epithet a time or two when talking about rival Internet browser Firefox.
The open-source application was mentioned for the first time in Microsoft’s annual report, notes this story on the CNET blog.
In the report filed last Friday with the SEC, Microsoft makes note of traditional operating system rivals Unix and Linux as well as components competitors like Firefox:
“Competitors such as Mozilla offer software that competes with the Internet Explorer Web browsing capabilities of our Windows operating system products.”
The report goes on to say that it believes Windows will “continue to compete effectively with non-Microsoft browsers, media players, and other non-Microsoft programs.”
This is significant, as it’s the first time Microsoft has made formal mention of Firefox in an annual report and evidence of the growing competitive threat posed by the browser.
InformationWeek has more coverage.
