>
> I'll admit to wondering how fast this will occur.
> Microsoft is a very large company, and presumably will
> take awhile to take down. At this point they're getting
> $46.06B/year in gross revenue, with a net income of
> $11.91B; this means they're spending $34.15B/year
> on what not. (How much of that is for actual sales,
> I'd have to look.)
>
I think this is realistic, and I doubt that Linux will ever have a
large presence on the desktop until it has enough market share to
drive the development of commercial software. This may come from
developing countries. If some of them adopt Linux in a big way, it
will not only create a market but also additional pressures for
compatibility with Microsoft products. That is, there will be
motivations for developers working with the Windows platform to
enhance compatibility (for example, reverse engineer file formats,
make Openoffice more nearly compatible with Word, etc). Also improve
user interfaces, the kind of things that DFS is always complaining
about, etc. Right now these movements are only beginning, although
they are picking up steam. There's no question that more progress
would have been made by now had it not been for obstacles thrown in
the way by Microsoft, which obviously cannot stand open competition,
but there certainly has been progress. Personally I don't think that
success is guaranteed, in fact I prefer not to make predictions at
all, but I'm hopeful.
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