[ Thanks to mohansimham for this
link. ]
“For an organisation dependent on Microsoft technology,
as indeed most organisations are, there is both opportunity and
potential for business disruption, thanks to the Microsoft
antitrust verdict. This article chooses to focus on the
positive, and explores what organisations should do to minimise
their risks so as to emerge unscathed, even if Microsoft itself
does not.”
“Microsoft has spoiled us with free browsers bundled with our
desktop operating systems and free webservers bundled with our
server operating systems. Surely, it’s not too much of a leap to
totally free products that have proved themselves in the real
world? We’re talking about products like the Linux operating
system, the Apache webserver, the SendMail mail server, the Squid
proxy server, the Samba Windows-emulating fileserver, the BIND
domain name server, etc.”
“What happens to all the machines you’ve acquired over the
years? Do they need to be thrown away? Perish the thought. Even if
Microsoft disappears, you don’t have to buy Sparc workstations!
Virtually every alternative operating system (Linux, FreeBSD, BeOS)
runs on Intel-based PCs, so your investment in hardware at least is
likely to remain intact. What’s more, alternative desktop operating
systems are vying to be more Windows-like than Windows.”