Microsoft and Linux

[via Navneet] Robert Cringely writes: “Linux scares Microsoft on several levels. There’s this business of giving the software away for free, which is totally confusing to Bill Gates — confusing and scary, since it undermines the entire basis of his fortune. But it’s the breadth of Linux and its potential on other platforms that also scares Microsoft. At a time when Microsoft is trying to be sure its software runs on all the handhelds, set-top boxes, mobile phones and any other new machine types that just might replace in our hearts the PC, versions of Linux compete on all those platforms, too.”