whino, WindowsMan, I agree, and it is one of the reasons I'm long MSFT. There is good potential in servers, and MSFT has a compelling product for small companies and departments within large companies. Linux really has one major thing going for it - IBM is standardizing on it for their enterprise offerings. Actually the two coexist nicely in the same organizations: Unlike desktops, there is really a lot more compatibility between servers from different vendors. IBM will offer solutions on Linux that won't be available on Windows, and Windows will offer price/performance for other applications. IBM won't change their model, they will simply sell Windows servers for the customer needs filled best by it, alongside big iron running Linux.
There is one place where Windows and generic Linux compete head-to-head, and this is web servers and general file & print on inexpensive x86 platforms. That is the battlefield.
Linux won't compete on the generic desktop, I agree. They will have a niche in the development community (as a platform for Linux and Unix builds), but for the typical user they get a lot more value in the consistancy of either Windows or Mac.
(However, Mac continues to decline, and is crossing the point where they won't have critical mass to attract software developers. What of Apple? I think they are morphing into a media company, and the day soon will come where they make more money from selling songs through their download site. The G5 is likely to be their last hurrah in desktop computing.)
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