Sending the penguins out with a hot foot, Oct 30, 2006

Let's clear something up right away: Larry Ellison's blockbuster announcement earlier this week wasn't meant to choke the life out of the open-source movement.

After months waiting for Microsoft to give me a reason to remain loyal, I finally dumped Internet Explorer for the Firefox Web browser last week.

At the office, my cubicle colleague--a Firefox aficionado of long standing--smugly greeted the news by asking me what took so long. But rest assured this is no small concession.

The mind-bending spectacle of Steve Ballmer and Scott McNealy swapping Detroit Red Wings jerseys and yukking it up onstage at a swank San Francisco hotel made for a fetching photo opportunity.

But the reason that these two longtime foes were talking friendly was the recognition that more dangerous mutual threats loom on the horizon.

In case you've been in outer space the last decade and a half or were otherwise not paying attention, the famously rancid feud between Microsoft and Sun Microsystems has been a constant spectacle in the high-technology pantheon.