[Question_Assumptions]

More evidence that competition is good. The biggest problem that the Open Source movement poses to Microsoft is that they can't either (A) buy the competition or (B) destroy their competition's business because the people who develop the software aren't doing it for money. There is no business to buy or crush.

Note that I'm not saying that there isn't a place for commercial software. I've purchased quite a few Microsoft Office licenses for my own personal use. Indeed, I've probably spent several thousand dollars on licenses since all of my software is legitimately licensed. I'm also not anti-Microsoft. Not only do I have copies of Office and Windows Media Player installed on my Macintosh iBook, I also own copies of several of Microsoft Press' software development and project management books. I'd simply have more respect for Microsoft if it were competing on the quality of its products (which it can do with Excel, Word, and other software) instead of through anti-competative tactics.

[afz400]

My biggest problem with Microsoft is their obsession with surrepticious snooping of what people are doing on their computers (cookies, XP keeping track of MP3 use etc).