The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: Plugged in to Microsoft's biggest rival - interesting article about Linux inside Microsoft. I get some negative reactions to Linux from some of my colleague - the principle objections are that you can't make a business model out of "free" software - I think that misses the point - ISPs, banks, Telcos & governments aren't worried they have to pay for Server 2003 - the money from Linux comes from the associated support services. The other objection seems more related to IT people who don't know/understand the OS (it differs from Windows in some fundamental ways!) and so are scared that they are ignorant - by ignoring Linux their ignorance becomes less threatening to them.
The fact that Microsoft are ploughing money into it is interesting - to quote from Microsoft's Leigh Day "My belief is that open-source software is going to help drive the acquisition cost of software down toward zero," he said, a shift that will require software companies to move "over to a maintenance and support model."
People who continue to dis Linux because they've bought into the Microsoft mindset may find themselves out in the cold!