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

To: alydar who wrote (72195)	8/18/2002 11:09:27 AM
From: dybdahl	Respond to of 74651

I believe Linux's situation can be compared to the IBM PC. Everybody made IBM PC compatible computers, and the specs were easily available, just like Linux is easily available. Some vendors will introduce incompatibilities, like in the PC market. IBM and others had it with their RAM, Commodore with their disk drives etc. But the computers basically ran the same software. If a vendor would create a Linux that does not run mainstream software, nobody would use it. The IBM PC didn't kill alternative architectures. Macintosh survived, and so will Windows if Microsoft wants it so. And just like switching to Intel platform could kill Macintosh, so could switching to Linux kill Windows. But just like Apple created some Windows software, so has Microsoft contributed to Open Source projects, like Perl, and will continue to do so in order to make Microsoft technology a good choice for their customers. Macintosh is more expensive than an PC, but it doesn't stop customers from buying Macintosh. It's the same with Windows and other Microsoft software - increasing the price doesn't stop everybody from buying Microsoft. In fact, Microsoft and Apple face approximately the same dilemma - the difference is, that Microsoft still makes tons of money. But there is no doubt that Open Source is the future. Gnome and KDE desktops are no longer seldom on desktops in the background when TV channels interview somebody, and all the media is talking much more Linux than Windows.