Microsoft might have to try to compete!
Microsoft thinks open source could harm them!
Oh no! Whatever shall we do! Microsoft, long the schoolyard bully, able to charge what it wanted because it was the only game in town, is now afraid that competition from open source (and generally free) might threaten its bottom line!
This is rich with irony. Microsoft has bought out or stomped out most of its competitors in the past. Most often they killed off their competition by offering free versions of whatever software was winning marketshare. They "bundled" these together, so they were installed by default. You might recall an anti-trust verdict about this practice.
But out of one small corner of the Internet came Linux. First they tried to ignore it, then they tried to undermine it, and now they say it will hurt their bottom line. The reality? They can't buy open souce, because it's free. They can't undercut open source, because it's free.
So Microsoft, which has put many businesses out of business by offering free alternatives to their software, is now saying that a competitor offering a free alternative to their software/operating system might hurt them financially! WOW! What insight they possess!