In 2004, "Microsoft's prices have only one way to go: down"

"With OpenOffice and Linux bringing serious competition back to the desktop for the first time in almost a decade, Microsoft's prices have only one way to go: down. Redmond's decision to pursue other revenue sources - patents - is as the Free Software 'Foundation's counsel Eben Moglen said ... simply the start of Plan B: 'Microsoft executives are aware they have crossed a maturity threshold - they can't grow as quickly as they have before; and even blockbluster products won't change this dramatically,' he observed."

Andrew Orlowski, writing in The Register, December 31, 2004

"Longhorn will never ship, but Microsoft Linux will."

"New Year's prediction: Longhorn will never ship, but Microsoft Linux will. Even if I'm wrong, it's clear that software development is headed for a new place, and the end game that most observers saw even five years ago -- that MS would win it all -- doesn't seem as likely on the eve of 2004. That said, Microsoft isn't going to go away, in this author's opinion."

Chris Gulker, writing at software.itmanagersjournal.com, January 1, 2004 

"There's also a nice David/Goliath aspect to Linux vs. Windows competition"

"The big action on the IT news front in 2004 will be Linux and open source. The software may only be incrementally better than it was a year ago, but "China Chooses One Million Sun Linux Desktops" is news, if only because of the big number. There's also a nice David/Goliath aspect to Linux vs. Windows competition that attracts journalists because it makes for dramatic stories, ones where the Good Guys win and the Bad Guys lose, just like in the movies."

Robin 'Roblimo' Miller, writing at NewsForge, January 1, 2004

Linux in 2004 Predictions from Forbes editors

"The end of "free." Free didn't work for dotcom pet food stores, yet much of the rhetoric around technologies like Linux and voiceover-IP still involves this crazy notion that companies can make money by giving things away. They can't. One sign that some are recognizing that this is folly: Red Hat's move to migrate its Linux customers to a paid-for "enterprise" version of its software. Others will follow suit."

Daniel Lyons , December 23, 2003 

"The so-called software revolution sparked by Linus Torvalds is now a revolution from within that's farther-reaching than the hotly debated Linux vs. Microsoft showdown. It's a new way to develop software that's lowering costs for industry incumbents like IBM, Novell and Oracle." 

Victoria Murphy , December 23, 2003 

 

 

"Free Software Ximian Desktop" in prospect?

"In a year when its neighbor, as well as closely related, SCO Group took to attacking GNU/Linux in increasingly large barrages of legal threats and actions, Novell started formulating a serious portfolio of GNU/Linux offerings by announcing purchases of Ximian Inc., a major GNOME developer, and SuSE Linux AG, the popular GNU/Linux distribution. Assuming that SCO attempts to block the Novell-SuSE deal fail, the deal promises to unite Ximian Desktop with a much needed foundation distribution in the form of the easy-to-use SuSE Linux. We're hoping Novell might get rid of the annoying YaST License in the process, making SuSE a truly Free distribution for the Free Software Ximian Desktop."

Timothy R. Butler writing in Open for Business, December 31, 2003

Bradley Kuhn: "Proprietary software [is] bad for the world"

"Or maybe, as some suggest, the [Free Software Foundation] wants GPL-covered code to creep into commercial products so it can use GPL to force open those products. [FSF Executive Director Bradley] Kuhn says that's nuts--"pure propaganda rhetoric." But he concedes that his foundation hates the way companies like Oracle and Microsoft generate billions of dollars by selling software licenses. "We'd like people to stop selling proprietary software. It's bad for the world," Kuhn says.

So far, none of the Free Software Foundation's targets have decided it is bad for the world and gone to court. This despite the fact that the foundation has $750,000 in the bank and one lawyer who works for free, part time, when he's not teaching classes at Columbia University.

Will Cisco and Broadcom be the first? Probably they'll decide, like everyone else, that it's cheaper to settle than to fight."

Kuhn, quoted by Forbes
correspondent Daniel Lyons, 23 December 2003

 

• Hmmm, So Who's Gonna Fall on Their Sword?
• The State of Linux: Review of 2003, Predictions for 2004
• Linux Looking Forward: Twenty Linux Luminaries Look at Linux in 2004