The competition benefits because it either will face an invigorated opponent which is always good for business or will sail into the leadership of its field without firing any more shots. We benefit because we get better products from the emboldened competitor and, if the decision goes right, from the former monopolist, too. Competition is what matters. Competition is all that matters, in fact. Improvements don't come from guys in their garages who want to save the world.
Crazy things come from guys in their garages who want to save the world.
Improvements come from trying to make something better, and trying to make something better comes from competition. So that's why I write about Linux and about Linux software. Each chunk of the PC market absorbed by Linux means one more incremental improvement in Windows, in Microsoft Word, in everything that Microsoft makes. Or it means Microsoft will just cry a lot and fade away. Microsoft is a wimp company.