Re: Should the Fed Gov break up Microsoft?

[the.cat.in.the.hat@usa.net]

>Linux is not the only "open source" operating system around, given that 
*BSD
(another UNIX-like OS) and Minix are distributed with source code.  But 
even
if this wasn't the case, Linux does not have enough market control to be
considered a monopoly -- let alone an abuser of monopoly power. 

Around linux circles i hear things like 'microsoft will go down, and linux 
will be the desktop os used by everybody'. If it happens (and i am 
definately sure that it will not, linux is not suited for desktop use), 
and if macintoshes, and all the others, remain with their amount of 
computers/OSs on desktop, then linux will have 95 or so percent of the 
market: then would you call it a monopoly?

>If what you are suggesting were the case, then Apple could have been 
considered
a monopoly for selling Apple II computers.  Only an Apple II could, after 
all,
run Apple II software. 

Not really...if you were distributing a BASIC program then to run on a 
different computer, a few changes after, it would run quite happily.