Comment But what does this mean for the future? (Score 1) 525
The way things are emerging there could be quite a mixed outcome to all this. M$ might be broken up, but with what result? It might end up strengthening the Win32 platform rather than weakening it and Bill Gates and his shareholders could stand to make even more money.
The effects almost seem contradictory. On the one hand there will be more freedom for competitors to innovate, but on the other there is a very rich war chest hanging there to compete in a genuinely innovative way as well.
One thing appears certain thought, that hanging onto M$ coatails won't be the sure ride to riches it has been.
The implications for Linux? Well it may make life harder as the hated over-priced opposition is gone (or at least weakened) so imperitive to have to compete with free software as the only way to get around M$ diminishes and so the IBM's, Oracles, SGI's of this world may re-think their support of Linux.
We are destined to live in interesting times....
