The recent ruling against Microsoft in its antitrust suit marked a real change in the public attitudes toward software. For the first time since the company came to power, consumers realized that the common practices of price fixing and restrictive licensing are neither necessary nor legal. Microsoft acknowledged the shift toward open-source software in several of its briefs.
Users are free to copy and redistribute it to their friends.
The trend toward open-source software has attracted the notice of powerful corporations. In 1999, IBM and Hewlett-Packard announced that they were putting their weight behind an open source operating system called Linux . It supports the same kinds of applications, from games and word processors to web servers and graphic manipulation programs. Linux can run on many kinds of computers, from ancient 386's to high-end workstations. Best of all, it is available for free from many sites on the Internet.