Banging at Microsoft's door, tiny Linux Analysis/Commentary Linus Torvald's vision of a free-source alternative to the Microsoft operating system has been getting closer and closer to realization, although tiny Linux only occupies 4% of the operating system niche, while Microsoft occupies 88%. But Linux, like the little engine that felt confident it could, seems to gather steam. One advantage for Linux is Microsoft's unpopularity among its competitors: Oracle, IBM, Sun Microsystems, and even applications developers like Corel and Caldera. In the server industry, Linux is viewed as a cheap and efficient alternative to Microsoft's Windows 2000. Who will win and who will drop out? Who knows. Apple went up against MS too, and later conceded defeat. Linux's advantage is that it's free and runs free software like the Apache web server. Another advantage is that it has champions in the respectable corporate world, like Red Hat Software -- which went public recently. Red Hat acts as a paid consultant for corporations that don't want to bother with the alleged bullying tactics of Microsoft. Red Hat vows to build a user interface for Linux that will rival Windows. Already, it has enlisted a number of Microsoft-hating companies into a motley gang of rebels. Hewlett-Packard is one, IBM another, Dell, Corel, and Oracle, others. Some of these companies will assist Red Hat in developing the Linux desktop for office and home use through support for the GNOME Graphical User Interface (GUI). Linux seems no longer your father's Buick, even though it lacks the convenience and universality of Windows. Microsoft, on the other hand, seems to be coasting with its momentum, and continuing its pattern of lackluster inventiveness. Its latest "tour-de-force" is a cheap appliance that dumbs-down PCs for simple, at-home Internet surfing. But the question arises: can you really surf without a mouse? Compaq thinks so, and so does Microsoft. Meanwhile, Linux, celebrated this week at a San Jose show, proudly vents its head of steam. August 16, 2000