Linux Hurts Apple More Than Microsoft

Linux has the power to push Apple to #3 if it can gain a little more traction on the desktop.

"Linux was Finnish programmer Linus Torvalds' response to Sun's pricing, but many more techies saw it as the ultimate weapon for their all-out software jihad against Microsoft (which, of course, owns Slate). But like another holy war, the Linux-Microsoft fight has resulted mostly in collateral damage. Instead of wiping out Windows, Linux evangelists have driven one after another of Microsoft's competitors out of the operating system business. IBM, DEC, SCO, and finally Sun have lost the non-Windows portion of the server market to Linux, and no wonder: Linux is basically a better version of their Unix products, for free."

...But with technology budgets frozen or slashed in most offices and homes, it's getting harder to compete with free—unless you're Microsoft. Every field in software seems to thin out to Microsoft and Someone Else. Usually, it's Microsoft and Second Place, but this year's game console wars illustrate the point, too: The entry of Microsoft's Xbox hasn't hurt first-place PlayStation 2. Instead, it bumped second-place Nintendo to third.

As the Unix wars proved, the software biz doesn't have time for No. 3...Apple still has software applications not available on Linux—such as Quark for publishing, or Photoshop for graphics—but if Salkever's analyst buddies step forth and pronounce Linux the No. 2 platform, software companies will re-evaluate their commitments. No doubt the graphic designers and multimedia artists who have remained loyal to Macs will continue to buy them, but to grow Apple needs more Switchers to abandon Windows—and not for Linux.

Is the new Mac the fastest personal computer ever? Maybe, but that was Sun's line, too.