Can Microsoft Erase Handwriting On Wall?
By Chris Nerney December 6, 2002 For some years now we’ve been hearing about the inevitable, even imminent, fall of Microsoft, the software giant that everyone loves to hate. From the Internet to Java to the U.S. Department of Justice, there was always some brave white knight on the horizon ready to cut the Redmond colossus down to size. Through all these recent challenges, of course, Microsoft has remained the world’s dominant software company, thanks both to its ability to adapt (in the case of the Internet) and to its hardball business and legal tactics (Java and DOJ). If there has been a common thread running through Microsoft’s recent gauntlet of tribulations, it has been the company’s fierce determination to defend its stranglehold on the desktop, which it effectively leverages to gain ground in server and other enterprise software markets. Now, though, even Microsoft appears unsure it can handle what could be the biggest threat yet to its desktop dominance – open source. In comm
