“Much of today’s buzz concerning open standards centers around
the differing strategies of two industry giants: Microsoft
committed to its successful, proprietary Windows operating system,
and IBM using its clout to back open standards. Both companies have
the power to influence and at times, even dominate the industry,
but neither can deter a major shift in the computing model once it
takes on a life of its own, as the Internet did, and moves the
entire industry in a whole new direction.“The open standards movement represents the latest of these
major shifts. Microsoft still dominates the market for server
operating systems, but the latest report by the market research
firm IDC shows Linux gaining more ground with 23 percent of the
market share in 2002. Both operating systems will continue to
increase their market share through 2007, IDC predicts…”