Maybe Microsoft chooses to fight there because it’s where their entire business model lives–and they have shown little to no success in adapting to the web, so they don’t have much choice but to hang on to what they’ve got now. Meanwhile, FOSS has the luxury of taking over the web client marketplace and fighting very competitively for fat client desktops at the same time, simply because the community is now so big and broad-based.

Look how well Linux has done in other new categories–consumer electronics, mobile devices, web servers, etc. Thin clients will certainly flock to Linux, too. We’re blocking MS from taking over new markets now, and ready to assault their home territory to push them out of that, too.

However, that’s just one side of the argument, as there are lots of end-users that will continue to utilize and actually _take responsibility_ for their own documents and media. It is therefore the size of this second group that will define the success of GNU.. but maybe not the success of Linux.

It’s a really interesting topic (and far to complex to discuss in a comment box) - but the end of a single-vendor dominance is eagerly anticipated and should be celebrated. I’m just pleased it’s because that GNU/Linux is usurping it naturally - rather than through artificial and unsustainable means,