“…The DoJ and 17 of the 19 states that sued Microsoft for
antitrust violations — a group that last Friday proposed a remedy
of breaking Microsoft in two — are arguing that a Microsoft Office
company would have incentive to port Office and BackOffice
applications to non-Windows platforms. The resulting availability
of Microsoft applications on Linux, Unix, the Mac OS and other
platforms would propel demand for these products, the government
argues.”
“Some software developers agree with this future scenario;
others think Office or BackOffice for Linux might do little
more than kill off Microsoft competitors in these markets and leave
customers with fewer choices.“
“‘The market pressures are there for Microsoft to embrace Linux.
A number of OEMs might come around to adopt Linux if Microsoft ends
up backing it,’ said Ransom Love, president and CEO of Linux vendor
Caldera. ‘Corel and Sun/StarOffice would face new, significant
competition, but at least (a breakup) would create a level playing
field. … And Microsoft would benefit from working on Linux, too.
Maybe they’ll finally get their apps to run better on … a
better-written multitasking OS.'”