Microsoft have been asking open source companies not to compete on cost, but rather on value, according to ZDNet. Unfortunately the response to this hasn’t exactly been positive, as CNET reports. I doubt many open source vendors will be taking much notice of what Microsoft would like them to do, and suspect they will happily continue to make the point that if customers are looking at buying software & services, taking the cost of software completely out of the equation is almost certain to save them money.