Microsoft Goes McCarthy in War Against Linux

Microsoft Windows is the single most widely used computer program in the world. Chances are, it's running right now on your computer at home, in your office, at your kids' school, you name it. Millions of people see the flying Windows logo every day, as it waves across 90 percent of all computer screens on the planet.

Windows and its related programs have become so dominant that, as anyone who has ever heard of Bill Gates knows, the Justice Department is fighting a protracted legal war to break Microsoft's monopoly power. Over a year ago, Microsoft was ordered to split into three different companies. Lately, Justice has threatened to block the release of Windows XP, the latest version of the program, until the courts have decided on a remedy for Microsoft's misbehavior. Microsoft tried to get this decision delayed through complicated legal wranglings but was struck down by federal appeals court on August 17.

But considering how handily Microsoft lawyers have dealt with the government in the past, that may not be Bill Gates' biggest worry these days. Instead, he's probably looking over his shoulder at a program that is equal to (if not better than) Windows, one that's steadily eating away at Microsoft's market share, is constantly being upgraded, and is completely free: Linux.

Known in the geek world as "open source" software (its source code can be used or tweaked for free), Linux has become Microsoft's #1 competitor. According to market researcher International Data Corp., Linux garnered a 27 percent share of operating system software for computer servers sold last year. That's up from 24 percent in 1999 and 17 percent in 1998 -- a surprisingly high growth rate that positions Linux as the prime contender to knock Microsoft Windows (41 percent) from the top spot.

That has the folks in Redmond worried. So worried, in fact, that Microsoft bigwigs are calling Linux "un-American" and a threat to innovation. At a congressional hearing on intellectual property earlier this year, Microsoft operating system chief Jim Allchin said, "Open source is an intellectual-property destroyer. I'm an American, I believe in the American Way. I worry if the government encourages open source, and I don't think we've done enough education of policymakers to understand the threat."

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer called open source software a "cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches."

Even founder Bill Gates weighed in with his own rhetoric saying that open source was created with the belief that the business of software should not even exist.

Microsoft's gripe is that once a company develops software using open source code, it must forfeit its right to charge for the intellectual property that is the product of that development. It's largely viewed as a bogus argument, since there is nothing illegal about Linux or the General Public License that guarantees its open development and use; it may even be protected as free speech. In reality, Linux is less a threat to the intellectual property business than to Microsoft's business.

Linux developers, known as penguin-heads (in reference to their penguin mascot), are naturally a bit upset at Microsoft's attack. Posting on the popular Linux hangout Slashdot, a programmer going by the name of "herk" remarked, "Well if they can't destroy Linux through corporate stronghold tactics and intimidation, they may as well resort to convincing the general public it should be illegal."

Of course, many in the Linux community view the Microsoft offensive as confirmation that Linux has arrived. "It is telling when an unethical company who engages in various illegal practices descends into nothing short of crass nationalism to defend its case," added another open source programmer.