2009: the year that Microsoft lost its dominance on the desktop and became a 'normal' IT company

2009 will be the year that Microsoft has lost its monopoly on the desktop, as Asian manufacturers like Asus and Acer, prefer to invest in Linux based desktop solutions. "Arrogance" is mentioned as motivation. But also price is a major issue: in the current downturn consumers and business want to spend less on IT.

The EU is also doing its best to make it Microsoft difficult. The EU commisioner for anti-trust cases, Neelie Kroes, ruled in favour of Norwegian Opera that Microsoft should unbundle its web browser Internet Explorer from its operating system and offer it separately.

The increase in competition on the desktop will lead to a Microsoft that is a "normal" company as all companies, that are competing merely on quality than on politics. Hopefully, Microsoft will then gradually become more supportive of open source and open content initiatives, like its major competitor Google.