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Open Sauce faces mixed fortunes in 2008
NEXT YEAR will be a mixed one for the Open Sauce industry, according to according to Raven Zachary, open source research director for The 451 Group.
Speaking to Network World Zachary said 2008 will be marked by more news out of Microsoft, IBM, Oracle and other big IT vendors, less start-up Open Sauce funding and an increasingly serious talent shortage.
While Zachary was optimistic about Open Sauce in 2008, he thinks that there will be problems for the community to face.
He said that he was optimistic because big-name IT vendors such as IBM and Oracle were embracing open source and collaborative development systems involving.
He also said he anticipates Microsoft becoming increasingly busy in open source, since it “has a vested interest in making sure open source works well on Windows.”
But he said that there will be a shortage of open source talent as demand for internal open source support and developers increases.
While outfits have been hiring Linux know-it-alls, but it was important to work out which open source projects have big potential and hiring talent early on before the going price gets too high.
He also predicts that in 2008 there will be a wave of failed open source businesses.
At the moment the open source opportunity in the small and midsize business market is limited because such outfits don't want to pay for support.
More here. µ
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"he anticipates Microsoft becoming increasingly busy in open source, since it “has a vested interest in making sure open source works well on Windows.”

What a load of cr** :-) As far as working well on Windows, open source is no different from closed source. Being open doesn't magically make it more difficult to run, although I suspect that might be the subtle implication.

The only thing that Microsoft could do to make _any_ software (be it open or closed source) work better on Windows, is to open source the Windows system libraries. That would make it easier to debug problems. 

It is extremely difficult to develop reliable software without access to the system sources, just by relying on documentation and black box experiments.
...except he hasn't noticed that the Year of the Linux Desktop has already started. Linux-based machines like the Asus Eee PC are selling like hotcakes--Asus is projecting it'll sell 5 million of the things in the coming year--which means that competitors will inevitably rush to join in.

This is a new market segment where Microsoft Windows just doesn't fit in, with its larger resource requirements and its significant addition to the cost.
Quote:
'He also said he anticipates Microsoft becoming increasingly busy in open source, since it has a vested interest in making sure open source works well on Windows.'

That's just some BS from an unknown analyst. Only one thing is sure: MS openly hates Open Source and wants the cheapasses to buy its expesive software instead of downloading free or cheap alternatives.