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The article discusses whether Microsoft is finally about to face real competition in desktop-computer software. For years, many in the computer business have hoped that Linux, a freely available computer operating system, would become a viable alternative to Microsoft's Windows, the near universal standard for the world's personal computers. Within the past month, some of the world's most powerful technology firms have pledged considerable support for Linux on the desktop, including Dell and Sun Microsystems. By the end of the decade, Linux's share could grow, reckons Al Gillen, an analyst at technology consultancy IDC, displacing Macs as the main alternative. That would still fall far short of Linux's growing popularity in the market for powerful server computers. Linux aficionados, however, say its chances on the desktop should be better. However, despite improvements Linux faces obstacles. Some of Linux's main backers have relatively modest ambitions for the operating system. Linux's main appeal is likely to be to companies rather than home users. But the future is uncertain, and Linux still might yet represent another kind of threat to Microsoft.

If Google were to close down its popular web-search service tomorrow, it would be much missed. Yet many IT firms would not be too unhappy if Google were to disappear. They certainly dislike the company's message to the world: you do not need the latest and greatest in technology to offer outstanding services. In the words of Marc Andreessen of Netscape fame, now chief executive of Opsware, a software start-up: "Except applications and services, everything and anything in computing will soon become a commodity." Exactly what is meant by "commoditisation", though, depends on whom you talk to. It is most commonly applied to the PC industry. Although desktops and laptops are not a truly interchangeable commodity such as crude oil, the logo on a machine has not really mattered for years. As the term implies, "commoditisation" is not a state, but a dynamic. As the technology becomes more widespread, better understood and standardised, its value falls. Eventually it joins the sector's "sediment", the realm of bottom feeders with hyper-efficient metabolisms that compete mainly on cost. The IT industry also differs from other technology sectors in that its wares become less valuable as they get better, and go from "undershoot" to "overshoot," to use the terms coined by Clayton Christensen, a professor at Harvard Business School. But although expensive Unix systems, the strength of Sun Microsystems, are--and will probably remain for some time--a must for "mission-critical" applications, servers are quickly commoditising. Google goes even further. A visit to one of the company's data centres in Silicon Valley is a trip back to the future. In the same way that members of the Valley's legendary Homebrew Computer Club put together the first PCs using off-the-shelf parts in the early 1970s, Google has built a huge computer system out of electronic commodity parts.

Focuses on network computers. Comparison of the price for network computer with the price for personal computer (PC); Benefits from switching from a PC to a network computer; Low lifetime cost of the network computers in comparison to the lifetime cost of PCs; Need for companies to update its existing PCs rather than switch to network computers.