Stock Market Mania Watch
Microsoft: Final Judgement
Judge Jackson: Conclusions of Law, United States of America v. Microsoft Corporation
Here is a good explanation of why the economic model of open-source (free) software diminishes Microsoft's influence on the industry.
InfoWorld's Nicholas Petreley offers his views on bubble stocks and Microsoft in particular.
Has Microsoft created the biggest financial fraud of all time?
Microsoft Corporation's "Finding of Facts," September 10th 1999:
"The appropriate arena for analyzing the claims presented in this case is software platform competition. In that arena, Microsoft faces actual and substantial competition from AOL/Netscape, Apple, IBM, Sun, Oracle, SCO, Lucent, commercial purveyors of Linux such as Red Hat and Caldera, the open source movement, and others. Such competition will only increase in the future as (i) AOL seeks to create a proprietary all-encompassing platform ("de facto operating system") for its tens of millions of subscribers and the tens of millions of users of Netscape's Web browsing software, (ii) Sun pursues its goals of establishing Java as a universal platform and network computers as a replacement for personal computers, (iii) the momentum behind Linux grows, and (iv) operating systems for non-PC devices migrate upward into traditional desktop computers. Should Microsoft fail to keep an edge in product innovation and quality and cease to be the preference of both business and individual consumers, its platform business will wither and die."
Microsoft's Dastardly Plot by John C. Dvorak, PC Magazine.
Report from the war zone: Microsoft's Response to Linux from GBdirect.
Jesse Burst (Editorial Director, ZDNET) tells us what will prick the biggest bubble in stock market history in: The Coming Crash in Microsoft Stock.
Yahoo's Linux Stocks Club. Is Linux becoming a mania?
Let a Billion Computers Crash: Why Microsoft's success makes us all more vulnerable to Y2K craziness.
Mike Cowpland, quoted in the Irish Times, predicts Linux will dominate Windows® in five years' time.
At some point in 1998, Microsoft passed General Electric as the largest company on the planet (judging by its stock market capitalization). This company, which was started by a pimply-faced teenager only two decades ago, is now considered the ultimate powerhouse. However, that house is not only built on sand, its walls are made of glass. Dare we say it: Microsoft is today's Dutch tulip bulb craze. But don't take our word for it: read The Last Dinosaur and the Tarpits of Doom: How Linux Smashed Windows.
Don't believe it yet? Then, check out Fortune's The Tech Boom Will Keep On Rocking: Microsoft Waning.
Was 1998 the peak momentum year for Microsoft? For the first time, Microsoft's earnings will fall short of analysts' expectations. Software development delays in the Office 2000 Suite are to blame.