Microsoft: The Booth That Announced Nothing

Needless to say, New Yorkers are known for their mental toughness and skepticism, which usually comes with a strong undercurrent of humanity and compassion unbeknownst to most outsiders. That is part of the joke in Jerry Seinfeld's famous television show episode about Jerry's and George's idea to write and produce a sitcom about "nothing." Usually George's bright ideas are a recipe for disaster: but this time, a sitcom based on "nothing" makes it past a committee of top NBC executives and to the pilot phase.

Just blocks away from where the fictional story is based, Microsoft's presence at LinuxWorld offered a striking parallel. In short, Microsoft had a relatively big booth and a large presence, or much ado, about "nothing." Yes, that's right, nothing. Microsoft displayed its Xbox, security firewall applications, and WindowsXP, but, according to the PR representatives with whom I spoke, the company had nothing to announce. Additionally, besides a Unix-based software platform for servers Microsoft offers, Microsoft has nothing to do with Linux. So why was Microsoft at the camp for the software platform that most challenges its monopoly? "I don't know," I was told by a Microsoft representative.

Yep, Microsoft was on hand at LinuxWorld, but they had nothing to announce.

Conclusion

So, will Linux be as pervasive as Windows in the near future, especially in the consumer electronics sector? Is the party over for Microsoft? Most analysts doubt both scenarios.

While courts have forced Microsoft to publicly admit and make reparations for its culpability related to illegally stifling competition in the U.S. and in Europe, the company's wealth, over $30 billion in yearly revenues, and marketing practices have largely remained unfettered. So in sum, expect to live with Microsoft in the near future, especially in the PC realm. However, you can also expect a wealth of new and cheaper handhelds as well as PCs and servers based on Linux, which will offer many pleasant surprises in the realms of application, connectivity, and cheaper prices during the next few years.