Pricing pressure on Microsoft

Microsoft has always been very conservative in its SEC filings, claiming that although things were good this quarter, it could all fall to pieces Any Day Now. It's latest pronouncement of impending doom (as it racks up ever higher profits) was the Open Source Software could force it to lower prices. In fact, they've already being doing this in certain government contracts where, I presume, lack of concern with productivity made the threat to move to OSS more credible.

Now I'm a big fan of OSS, but I also recognize that Linux will not replace Microsoft on the desktop anytime soon. What it will do is reduce Microsoft's ability to price because, even if it is not as good, it's good enough lower people's willingness to pay for Windows/Office.