When you install the developer beta of Windows 7, after the usual 3 reboots cycle, you are greeted with the following image:
It is the Siamese fighting fish, a beautiful tropical fish, but with an interesting characteristic: it is extremely aggressive. It is popular belief that two males fight each other even in the wild, but that’s not quite true. This belief descends from the behaviour of the fish in an aquarium, where the victor continuously attacks the loser, eventually causing the loser’s death.
Now, think about the software ecosystem as an aquarium. And think about Microsoft in this aquarium. The latest release of Microsoft OS has an aggressive fish as its default skin, and it is alone in this aquarium. And there’s no place for anyone else: they’ll fight whatever adversary, even if it’s from the same species.
What’s uncertain is .. whether they’ll succeed, or not? :). We’ll see!