IBM (IBM) has decided to be the next company to pile onto Microsoft (MSFT), which has already been beaten like a red-headed step child for bringing out Vista, a flawed bit of software which is perhaps the most unpopular program in the world.

Apple (AAPL) has already gone after Vista with is nice new operating system which ships with its increasingly popular Mac. That has begun to take market share from Windows.

Now, IBM is introducing a desktop software system based on the open source Linux operating system and its own IBM-created software. Like a lot of new applications, the product will run on a server leaving the PC free from any need for a lot of memory or storage space. That means the new offering will go for as little as $59, which should be attractive to corporate IT people in a bad economy.

Windows is getting to the point where the problems with Vista are bad, but not bad enough to cause any serious harm. It still runs on over 90% of the world’s PCs.

But Microsoft’s problem is that it is falling into a pool of piranhas where a lot of little fish with sharp teeth could eat it alive.

Douglas A. McIntyre

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