future .net from Microsoft?

I've read many articles about the new .NET platfrom, whereby Microsoft tries to penetrate the internet domain, and somewhat leaving the desktop market from Windows, for which Microsoft might be split up into either OS and applications development.

Currently, only 1/3 third of the mayor Microsoft customers chose the microsoft new licencing 6.0 policy, so 2/3 are hesitant about it.
What I am curious about is the way corporations will decide weither to use open-source (Linux/Mysql/PHP) as alternitive or stick to microsoft stuff dispites the increasing costs for licences.

Especially interested is the fact that Red-Hat and Sun decided to finalize a uniform Linux OS which could at last compete the Windows OS monopoly.

The reason for this thread is to gain insight how people/developers think about these new development and how it will benefit open-source in general.

Since I've chosen PHP as a developmers language, esp. since asp.net came along, I hoped that open-source would/will be strong enough to compete against microsoft.

I am curious about your thoughts on this matter, since it will determine the future of PHP etc.

gr
Patrick

I fear not the beast that is Microsoft.

I am currently taking a JavaScript class as a requirement of my major. When the prof. asked what languages we had used or explored to any extent, I spouted out: Perl, PHP, C/C++, JavaScript, Java, and Python. However, everyone else in the class had stuck with proprietary languages... either VC++ or VB, one or two who'd done both. None had had the opportunity to even glance at .NET until they saw it was installed on our lab PCs.

The point (no, I'm not bragging, I am but a lowly, humble beginner truth be told)? All the people who stuck with Microsoft's proprietary junk had no clue how to do CGI and only a fleeting grasp of Database programming. They could create plenty of nifty executables, but only for the Windows OS, and even at that the programs weren't necessarily 100% compatible between Win9x, 2000, and XP. They were TOTALLY clueless on even basic security measures. Microsoft is not going to pull in the new developer group that it thinks it will with this .NET "strategy". Couple the price tag of .NET with the continued indifference to security, and you can rest assured that while Microsoft will keep it's core group of (essentially) poor slobs, they won't be cornering too many new markets anytime soon.