. . in Microsoft's success, and it's a very important factor, but hardly the only one. Many of the other factors are not nearly so admirable.

The combination of this intellectual resources management system and Microsoft's other business practices makes it a most formidable opponent. Their vast army of "partners" is driving Microsoft's hooks deeper and more inextricably into the fabric of business by the minute.

Microsoft's competitors and opponents have always uniformly underestimated the company, and especilly the overwhelming power of its "partner" structure. The Linux community is following in the footsteps of many defunct companies with its incessant chant of "Microsoft has already lost!"

Microsoft hasn't already lost, the battle has barely begun, and it isn't going to be one bit pleasant. Get used to it.