Keep investing in (our) IT, Microsoft tells EU

Subjects like Microsoft’s attitudes to patents and intellectual property weren’t up for discussion, and nor was the history of Microsoft’s relationship with the EU. “We have a very good relationship with the EU commission,” he said, going into a well-prepared routine. “We would like to put these issues behind us – they started seven or eight years ago. One of my missions is to make sure Microsoft understands Europe better. If Europe is successful, Microsoft will be successful in Europe. We create a lot of employment, and it is a really good asset in Europe.”

Muehlfeit did pick up on the subject of open source: “It’s an interesting question. You need to take the total cost of that specific solution into account, as software generally is a relatively small part of the solution. “Some open source products are for free, but then customers are paying a lot of money for the services, he said.”

There’s clearly going to be a fair amount of lobbying against any public sector preference for open source, said Muehlfeit. “I am a software engineer by profession. Freeware is nothing new, and it is great to have competitors, but people should not prefer open source to commercial through some sort of legislation. It should be based on choice. And on the value of the solution.”

As well as open source, there’s a third “Google” model based on advertising, said Muehlfeit. Governments shouldn’t legislate to support particular brands of car, he said. But what if some brands of car used more fuel or were environmentally worse, we asked? There might be good reasons to prefer one car to another (or legislate in favour of shared public transportation).

He wasn’t going to get into that sort of discussion, however.