SJ Mercury: Microsoft breakup could boost [silicon] valley firms

[ Thanks to George Mitchell for this link. ]

"A boost for Linux?
Competition could be achieved simply by creating separate Microsoft applications and operating system companies -- as long as the government kept a close eye on Microsoft's business practices, [Be Inc. president Jean-Louis] Gassee said."

"Ideally, the applications company would see the Linux operating system market as an attractive opportunity for Microsoft Office," said Gassee. "That would make Linux a more viable operating system and could force the (Microsoft) OS company to start supporting some of the new applications companies that are growing up around the Internet. That would give consumers choices."

"Bob Young, chairman of Red Hat, agreed. "We have lots of customers that would love to run Linux as a stable desktop operating system, but they can't, because the applications they are looking for, like PowerPoint and Word, aren't available for them,'' Young said. "And this is because Microsoft doesn't have incentive to make the applications available to a competing OS."

Complete Story

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