Truly enjoyed your article. Nice to hear intelligent comments for a change instead of "Flying Monkey Ease" (a.k.a. Microsoft Propaganda).

I have been in the industry over 20 years and would best liken Microsoft and it's grip on John and Jane Q. Public to a communist state.

Headed by a "Polit Bureau" of Lawyers and Business Managers in Redmond, this is about as far removed from an innovation as you can get.

They bought DOS AFTER telling IBM that they had developed it themselves. Microsoft Stole Windows from Xerox and Apple, and virtually every other "innovation" was extorted or borrowed as well.

In addition, open source could show that they are actually guilty of intellectual property theft. Wonder what their IP stack code looks like.....makes you kind of wonder, doesn't it? Even Internet Explorer was a "make over" of Mosaic.
"Me thinks they doth protest too much".

I can picture Mr. Gates and/or Mr. Ballmer Shouting "We will bury you!!!!!" beating their shoes on the table and announcing a new "tired" strategy of how to better bilk the masses out of their money. Microsoft is a bank that happens to sell software.

Like the latest "ante up $99 for an XP upgrade or your data will not be secure. Selling software based on fear, Doubt, and uncertainty of the technologically illiterate.

Capitalism? Hardly....that is more a communist type of trick.

Paraphrasing President Ronald Wilson Reagan

"Mr. Gates....Tear down that wall!"

Best Regards,

J. W.

It's obvious to me that the biggest gap between Linux and Windows today lies in end-user application software. Linux as an OS is better and there is little doubt about it. Linux in the server market (in the data centers) is doing great and there is no lack of great business software for Linux. Oracle, IBM, SAP etc all run on Linux. Most of the biggest enterprise software like Oracle Applications and SAP run through a web browser, rendering the OS irrelevant to the end-user.

It is in the desktop software market where Linux still have a lot of catch-up to do. The Web is making the OS on the client side less relevant, but there is a lot of useful
desktop software that is not yet available on Linux.

But the idea of open-source really is very complicated. I don't like Microsoft but I'm not sure if open-source is good for the software industry in the long run. It probably is better for the consumers of software. But the cost of developing open-source software ultimately comes from somebody. It's not clear to me who that is. When an open source developer writes software for free but still needs to feed his family, he makes money somewhere else.

[read my full commentary in response to article here:]
http://humbleblogger.blogspot.com/

"Microsoft could start from scratch to build a new OS that doesn't have all the problems found in the Windows architecture. Otherwise Linux will just keep getting better and MS will just be slapping band aides on Windows in the meantime."

"The ancient notion of restricted user-mode vs. privileged kernel-mode is not an adequate concept for promoting security and stability. Native instruction code execution is too dangerous to permit in user-written software."

"They need to make it clear to the marketplace that they're going to deal once and for all with being known for having a shoddy OS that's dangerous to business."

Microsoft doesn't have to worry as long as linux doesn't provide the types of program that many windows user use.
For example I do Heat transferrs to Tee shirt and I use the printshop programs. There is nothing in linux that I have found that provides the utility of PS. I do many video from my video to DVD my old beta recorder is an example. No program exist like Nero 6. For fun I play casino slot games.
If Linux is to be for the average Window user it need some programs.

I love the simple way Linspire loaded to my machine. Did not have to use the motherboard main disk. Many of the application available for free or very low price were great.
A accounting program for my business was unbelievable.
But my comments above stand.

This was the best article I've read on the real value of Open Source software. Equating Linux to mathematics was sheer genius.

Pete Perry

The Titanic and 'the iceberg' - what a great analogy.

As Microsoft has shown by its pig-headed refusal to change its monopolistic ways (despite the proof shown during the US Government vs Microsoft court case), neither will it change course before it hits the iceberg. Microsoft's arrogance will be the cause of its downfall.