Desktop Linux Where is it hiding Is this group a joke or something 4155

I doubt it's quite that simple, though it has got to be a scary thing for Microsoft that eventually they have to release a version of Office materially different from what they have now.

When they release such, "material differences" make it "materially expensive" to retrain people (to claim otherwise IS NONSENSE).

And if it is thus "materially expensive," that may make it worthwhile to put that "material expense" into retraining people in an MS-Office-to-OpenOffice.org transition.

Or in a "Windows 2003 to KDE" transition.

(After all, Linux is merely the OS kernel, and will remain virtually invisible from the view of those users that aren't directly involved in installing systems software on their systems...)

The other majorly "scary" part for Microsoft has got to be that the cost of their software is becoming a more and more dominant portion of the cost of deploying computer systems.

Hardware is getting cheaper, but the "Microsoft stuff" that is run on top of it is getting more expensive, not less.

This makes Microsoft and computer hardware vendors into adversaries, particularly as the hardware folk watch their share of the price of systems simply get given to Microsoft. -- Rules of the Evil Overlord #201. "All giant serpents acting as guardians in underground lakes will be fitted with sports goggles to