Steve Ballmer once called Linux a “cancer” — it's funny Windows 10 holdouts may now see it as the cure for Windows 11’s hardware rules and the RAM crisis

Bill Gates, co-founder and former chief executive officer of Microsoft Corp., from left, Steve Ballmer, former chief executive officer of Microsoft Corp., and Satya Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft Corp., during an event commemorating the 50th anniversary of the company at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington, US, on Friday, April 4, 2025.

"Linux is a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches," indicated former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in 2001. At the time, the executive considered Linux users to be communist thieves and viewed the open-source operating system as a "malignant cancer" on Microsoft's intellectual property.

In 2016, Ballmer seemingly changed his stance on Linux after Microsoft ported its SQL Server to Linux. He didn't redact his statement about Linux as he saw fit at the time. The executive revealed that going to war with open-source helped generate a ton of money, which greatly contributed to Microsoft's revenue.