ENT News: Commentary: A Warped View of Monopoly

“Microsoft is waking and smelling the coffee — and it isn’t
Java.

“Last month, for the first time publicly, Microsoft chairman
Bill Gates acknowledged that Linux is ‘very pervasive.’ Microsoft
also spells out the threat from Linux and open source in its most
recent 10-Q quarterly SEC filing. In the document, Microsoft states
that ‘to the extent the open source model gains increasing market
acceptance, sales of the company’s products may decline, the
company may have to reduce the prices it charges for its products,
and revenues and operating margins may consequently decline.’

“Privately, Microsoft staffers had been fuming for years about
Linux, and jumped all over the credibility of studies that show the
open source operating system gaining a foothold. In a way, Redmond
ought to be glad Linux came along when it did. For now we know
Microsoft was a lot closer to the truth than most thought when it
denied it was a monopoly…”

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