Google Gets Ready to Rumble With Microsoft, Dec 17, 2007

A cerebral computer-scientist-turned-executive, Eric E. Schmidt has spent much of his career competing uphill against Microsoft, quietly watching it outflank, outmaneuver or simply outgun most of its rivals.

Microsoft has given up its nine-year fight against antitrust regulators in Europe, saying yesterday that it would not challenge a court judgment from last month and would share technical information with rivals on terms the software giant had long resisted.

One Laptop Per Child, an ambitious project to bring computing to the developing world’s children, has considerable momentum. Years of work by engineers and scientists have paid off in a pioneering low-cost machine that is light, rugged and surprisingly versatile. The early reviews have been glowing, and mass production is set to start next month.

Less than three weeks after they reached an accord hailed as proof that rival software companies could work together, the chief executives of Novell and Microsoft are engaged in an unusual public dispute.

Microsoft certainly understands the problem, the need to change and the potential long-term threat to its business from rivals like Apple and the free Linux operating system, and from companies distributing software as a service over the Internet like Google.

The Internet, Round 2, is now under way. Again, the computing terrain is changing remarkably, helped along by free software like Linux and the spread of high-speed Internet access.

The rules governing the use of most free software programs will be revised for the first time in 15 years, in an open process that begins today.

The rating system, the sponsors say, will employ an open-source model with scores determined by those who use certain programs and contribute their judgments.