“Shares of Red Hat, a seller of the Linux operating system,
surged more than 20 percent to close at 104 in the wake of U.S.
District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson’s finding Friday that
Microsoft is a monopoly. And this happened despite Jackson’s
description of Linux as a “fringe operating system.”
“Red Hat was one of many companies around the periphery of the
Microsoft empire to benefit from investors’ enthusiasm. Generally,
the closer the company is to the margins of the computing world,
the better it fared as a result of the ruling….”
“Lonn Johnston, a vice president at privately owned
TurboLinux, was more optimistic, saying the Linux-related stock
jump today was justified.“