Will Linux vendors kill Apple?
Rob Enderle points out an ironic twist - while a lot of Linux server development was anti-Microsoft, Sun was the one who got killed by Linux server growth. Now that both Novell and Red Hat are looking into improving the user experiences, will the name of the next victim be Microsoft, or will it really be Apple Computer? And will Microsoft and Linux communities come together to fight a common enemy?
Unlike SCO, Apple has a well-funded marketing organization and could be far more effective at painting Linux advocates as communists and thieves. But this could get incredibly ugly. Apple is seeking patents to protect its interface better, but its litigation against Microsoft a decade ago didn’t go well, and Microsoft will clearly dispute these patent attempts and make it difficult even if Linux supporters don’t initially dispute these patents.