“This was a year of crises avoided and nightmares realized. It
started well enough with computers around the world vaulting nimbly
over the millennial date change and defying forecasts of
catastrophe. But not long after, the dot-com bubble burst and the
stock market began its steady descent into madness.”
“Microsoft wins slam-dunk victory in court
An appeals court overturns Judge Jackson’s breakup ruling, citing
numerous procedural flaws in the lower-court proceedings. The Bush
administration couldn’t be less interested in pursuing the matter
and Microsoft emerges from its three-year legal battle
unscathed.”
“Linux enters the enterprise
History will remember 2001 as the year that Linux breached the
walls of corporate America. Two big factors drive the phenomenon:
Microsoft’s continuing difficulties in convincing IT managers that
Windows 2000 is anything more than NT with a new suit and a haircut
and Sun’s full-scale endorsement of Linux as a core OS. Over
Scott McNealy’s dead body, you say? Remember that Sun is an
eminently practical company that has no reservations about changing
course if it thinks the tides are shifting. It will embrace Linux
in an instant if the Unix community as a whole heads in that
direction.”