It also has slashed some prices and set plans to link some programs to Linux, even while trying to kill off the rival by telling customers it is risky, unreliable and a dubious bargain.

FORBES: The New Barbarians

Just as cheap personal computers undermined the mainframe business in the 1980s and open-source programs like Linux and Mysql are challenging Microsoft and Oracle today, outfits like Fastcase are attacking Wexis' stranglehold on legal research from the bottom up.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Yet the popularity of open-source programs such as the Linux operating system continued to grow.

ECONOMIST: Computing

In the long run, Linux and other open-source programs could cause Mr Gates much grief.

ECONOMIST: Free software

But that generosity is possible in part because Linux itself and most of the programs Lindows offers are free for the asking elsewhere.

FORBES: Doesn't Do Windows