If anything is a threat to Linux, it is Linux! I used to use Linux until I got tired of trying to do things (such as set up a printer) and reading two year old FAQ's that discuss items that had no bearing on setting up a printer! Linux has to compete on two fronts successfully in order for Microsoft to stomp them, one is the Enterprise and the other is the Desktop. At the Enterprise level Linux is not making much headway against Sun or HP (at least the 6 Sun Enterprise servers and 1 HP server at work are still running Solaris and HP-UX the last time I looked). This requires specific hardware support that with the possible exception of IBM just isn't happening. As far as the Desktop is concerned, look at the earlier Slashdot post concerning Quake for Linux. Software developers are not going to jump into writing software for an operating system that changes almost on a daily basis (depending on distribution), let alone the differences in GUI's. Linux will fail simply because of the lack of standards (remember commercial Unix of the 80's and early 90's). This is not cost effective for companies to employ programmers for GNOME, KDE, AfterStep, Enlightenment, and CDE just to support Linux. And the vast majority of people who want an alternative to Microsoft will not look to Linux (just as they have not looked to OS/2, BeOS, MacOS or anything not Microsoft). Why, because of "ease of use" and plenty of programs readily available on store shelves or conveinent downloads! Mom and Pop are not going to attempt to figure out the arcane command line options for Linux (if they even get to a shell prompt) bad enough deal with compiling software! To a person who has no problem using GCC and a term window this is fine. And for those of you who prefer free (as in beer) software and don't mind spending hours finding solutions to hardware and software problems, that is fine. But at both the Enterpise and Desktop levels, the vast majority of people do not have that kind of time (or patience). They will go with the industry standard because of support and standards. Microsoft is safe, I am not so sure about Linux. When Linux encroaches the "all mighty" desktops of 75,000,000+ users, then Microsoft will promptly bury Linux, just as they would if Linux servers were walking out of VAR's like candy over machines using Windows 2000 Server!
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If anything is a threat to Linux, it is Linux! I used to use Linux until I got tired of trying to do things (such as set up a printer) and reading two year old FAQ's that discuss items that had no bearing on setting up a printer! Linux has to compete on two fronts successfully in order for Microsoft to stomp them, one is the Enterprise and the other is the Desktop. At the Enterprise level Linux is not making much headway against Sun or HP (at least the 6 Sun Enterprise servers and 1 HP server at work are still running Solaris and HP-UX the last time I looked). This requires specific hardware support that with the possible exception of IBM just isn't happening. As far as the Desktop is concerned, look at the earlier Slashdot post concerning Quake for Linux. Software developers are not going to jump into writing software for an operating system that changes almost on a daily basis (depending on distribution), let alone the differences in GUI's. Linux will fail simply because of the lack of standards (remember commercial Unix of the 80's and early 90's). This is not cost effective for companies to employ programmers for GNOME, KDE, AfterStep, Enlightenment, and CDE just to support Linux. And the vast majority of people who want an alternative to Microsoft will not look to Linux (just as they have not looked to OS/2, BeOS, MacOS or anything not Microsoft). Why, because of "ease of use" and plenty of programs readily available on store shelves or conveinent downloads! Mom and Pop are not going to attempt to figure out the arcane command line options for Linux (if they even get to a shell prompt) bad enough deal with compiling software! To a person who has no problem using GCC and a term window this is fine. And for those of you who prefer free (as in beer) software and don't mind spending hours finding solutions to hardware and software problems, that is fine. But at both the Enterpise and Desktop levels, the vast majority of people do not have that kind of time (or patience). They will go with the industry standard because of support and standards. Microsoft is safe, I am not so sure about Linux. When Linux encroaches the "all mighty" desktops of 75,000,000+ users, then Microsoft will promptly bury Linux, just as they would if Linux servers were walking out of VAR's like candy over machines using Windows 2000 Server!