Open Source

This seems to be an industry buzz word at the moment, both MS and Google are giving presentations on the importance of it. MS doesn't seem too convincing but by employing staff (20 isn't much for them but its a start) they are making progress. Google on the other hand are trying to facilitate development with some sort of sourceforge equivalent. That doesn't seem to me that they are doing much themselves but they have done a lot of work for firefox and they are paying people to develop open source stuff, which is nice.

Time will tell if these efforts make a difference. Personally I think its going to be an unstoppable force.

I've used linux on and off for four years. When I started with it, it wasn't very usable at all, it took hours just to install a program. (That said I learned a lot more then) Ubuntu is now as easy to use as windows, all it needs is more programs for it and windows will become obsolete.

References: MS platform chief: closed-mindedness about open source continues | ZDNet.com
Google at OSCON: Open Source Promotes Competition - Yahoo! News