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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: dybdahl who wrote (63295)	11/24/2001 11:11:10 AM
From: Bill Fischofer	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74651

But if voice and other advanced OS features become standard over the next few years, doesn't this significantly mute the economic argument for Linux? If Linux is no longer "free" then that seems to remove one of the main arguments that those favoring Linux have made against Windows. We've recently been through arguments along the lines of "well, you pay for one copy but you can deploy it on any number of machines" for those who want a prepackaged Linux solution. That certainly wouldn't apply to a licensed voice component since the vendor isn't going to give away their product like that. So you'd wind up paying for each Linux desktop the same way you pay for each Windows desktop. Sure they'll be competition in terms of volume discounts and such but the question will be how much and to whom do you pay rather than do you have to pay at all. Can Linux really compete on those terms?