"Nick Carr posted recently about 'Google, Apple and the future of personal computing'. I agree that mainstream popular computing is shifting from desktop apps to web apps, and while Microsoft is trying to do it all itself, specialist players like Apple and Google are forming coalitions. But I disagree that the future will be found in Apple: The future is in free software..."

RMS: «If Microsoft says that ['era of open computing'], it appears to be an attempt at a self-fulfilling prophesy. If people believe it, they may make it come true. The way to deal with that is to refuse to let Microsoft lead you. Pay attention to your freedom instead of self-serving forecasts ...

It is hard for the executive director of the Linux Foundation to feel bad for Microsoft, but they are having a bad week while Linux continues to move forward in innovative ways into new markets for computing. Let’s take a look at the difference between Microsoft and Linux this week:

Microsoft used to be dominant in the computer industry but that is slowly changing as Linux and Mac OS are taking over.

I'm not so sure that I agree that Linux is no longer about being anti-Microsoft, or being the alternative to Microsoft. From my point of view Microsoft makes a pretty good baseline for what not to do, and how not to do it.

Microsoft Corp. will soon be free of a U.S. court decree imposed for anti-competitive behavior, just in time for a showdown with Google Inc. and others seeking domination in the ever-changing software industry.

IN THE beginning Microsoft laughed at Linux and free software, claiming it was just an operating system for hackers and hobbyists, posing no real threat to their domination of the computing industry. Now it’s a very different story and Microsoft admits that Linux is their number one threat.

SC07 Microsoft's charge into the high performance computing game continues at pace. The software maker this week announced that its new cluster operating system - HPC Server 2008 - based on Windows Server 2008 will ship next Summer. In addition, the code dandy has fired up a Parallel Computing Initiative to develop more parallelized software for both HPC and business users.

Former Microsoft employee Keith Curtis publishes new book After the Software Wars on lulu.com. The key to faster technological progress is making software free, he writes. The difference between free, and non-free or proprietary software, is similar to the divide between science and alchemy.