I read an article yesterday on Tech Republic about how Microsoft's .Net push was alienating the small enterprise. In my circles, there are none that are too happy about the venture, and most say it will push them right out of the developer's market on MS products. Being an Unix guy, I falter to say I have not paid close attention to this topic. What I can say is that MS seems to be moving themselves into an exclusive market, one that the SMB will not be able to afford. This all sounds good to me, because I have the products to keep them going without Microsoft.
What you don't see much of is another large player taking Microsoft by the horns for market share. The TR article said Sun would most likely partner with AOL to push their Star Office products out to the SMB market via AOL's big pipes. Now, there's a novel idea.
With MS's new licensing scheme for Windows XP and their office products, I think we will all see the day when we wish we could buy a piece of software and actually own it again. Linux and open source will surely fill more needs, but I am still waiting for that one strong linux to emerge. As well, I am waiting for a de facto standard in office tools. In any event, some flavor of *nix will fill the impending, self-inflicted MS void.
