"The next installment of Windows will act as the cornerstone in Microsoft's ongoing battle with IBM and Linux. When the next version of Microsoft's operating system eventually launches, it will be into an environment unlike any faced by its predecessors."

""We see more people talking about smart clients than Linux. People want rich applications that they can deploy and manage centrally and you can do this with .Net today, but Longhorn will make it much easier," he says.

From a strategic point of view, however, it is actually the server rather than the client version of Longhorn that is more critical to Microsoft due to the long-term threat posed by Linux at the back-end."

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