Which is really the point and they won't be the only ones. If IBM wants
to attract and keep customers on their hardware, they will ensure that
the software and Linux drivers for it run very well, if Linux is going
to be their main play to sell hardware. The same will hold true for
other hardware manufacturers, including those the make video cards,
modems, etc, as Linux grows in the marketplace.
Linux will not displace the software industry, it will eventually
displace the commodity portions of it. This is what has Microsoft
afraid, since commodity software is their real play, games and specialty
software isn't. The fact is, the majority of software is written
in-house and through contracted professional services work, not off the
shelf. Linux will make that side of the industry even more valuable, it
will empower the developers and the businesses that hire them to do even
more than they can today. It will empower them to do it right.
As for games and similar specialties, they aren't going anywhere. It
costs far too much money to produce a high-end game and the open source
world either can't afford it or can't produce it fast enough to support
the market.
So Allchin's flag waving is simple posturing. Microsoft may become
irrelevant, but the software industry won't.
John
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