WORCESTER, MASS. - Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer last week used an address before software industry leaders outside Boston to tout his company's vision, while casting doubt on alternatives to Windows.

Speaking to members of the Massachusetts Software Council, Ballmer said he was excited about the promise of technological advances in the next decade.

"I'm as fired up now as I've ever been in 24 years at Microsoft," Ballmer told attendees at the event. "In the next 10 years, you're going to see more positive change than in the last 10."

Ballmer promoted his company's products as a key to that transformation, including the next version of Windows, dubbed Longhorn.

The company also is working to make its offerings more interoperable with products using other software platforms such as Linux, Unix and XML, he said.

He singled out XML and Web Services as the "big breakthrough" of the next decade that will spur innovation.

Shedding his visionary mantle, he scoffed at arguments that his company's operating system creates a computing "monoculture," and took a swipe at those who would see Linux replace Windows on servers and desktops within companies.

Microsoft's platforms offer better interoperability with the company's other technology, such as .Net, reducing the total cost of ownership of Windows compared with Linux, he said. Linux is available for free but often requires significant effort to integrate and maintain, he noted.

On the touchy issue of security, Ballmer dismissed the notion that Linux is more secure than Windows, saying he open source operating system would be attacked as frequently as Windows if it had as large a share of the operating system market as Windows.

While not perfect on security, Microsoft has a defined process for addressing security vulnerabilities,he said. He said the open source community is "all over the map" when it comes to addressing vulnerabilities in Linux.

Roberts is a correspondent with the IDG News Service.