[Viking2002]

I was just thinking about Windows vs. Linux on my way to a Dell warranty call last week - if Microsoft wanted to keep another dog from whizzing on it's fire hydrant, they should have done something about it ten years ago. Millions of users run Linux now - everywhere. This money grab - and make no mistake, that's what it is - is the very reason why Linux exists. Windows is unstable, bug-prone, and obscenely expensive. Linux isn't. Microsoft knows it, anyone who's used Linux knows it, and now Microsoft is feeling Linux's teeth biting it in the seat of the pants.

I love it.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I love it.

Agreed. It surely will be a very interesting saga to watch as time goes by.

[Fred Hayek]

Bill Gates made a statement about ten years ago about the possibility that someone else could develop a product that could beat Microsoft’s OS, and that was simply a market reality, so Microsoft would have to keep continuing to improve their product (the latter in reality is becoming very debatable).
Now someone else develops a better product, and one company doesn’t like it and sues. Wahh!
Microsoft’s day is coming to an end if it adopts this practice. If this course of action (sue the competitor if the competitor develops something better) is truly the direction of Microsoft, then it is time for Microsoft to die. Disclaimer - this is not a terroristic threat against Microsoft. The marketplace will eventually take care of Microsoft’s demise.

[Oberon]

Millions of users run Linux now - everywhere. This money grab - and make no mistake, that's what it is - is the very reason why Linux exists.

And that's the point I make to Microsoft defenders. Whether Gates's company is right or wrong, you've got to have seriously annoyed a lot of people when you cause your own worst competitor to spontaneously assemble itself from the grassroots.