Joe Wilcox our friend from cnet|news.com has posted a very interesting, broad and indepth article at the problems Microsoft may face post Iraqi war. It is a long and well based look at why Microsoft may see open source software as a threat and how it may just become more popular across europe and the east. Here"s a snip from the article :
It would be so easy for governments cooperating or thinking about cooperating on Microsoft anti-piracy efforts to simply stop. Others may see good reason for taking another hard, long look at open-source alternatives. Several countries have proposed passing legislation mandating that only open-source software would be used by government agencies. Given the existing geocultural and geopolitical climate in Europe, a few countries taking such action could cause rebellion that might spread throughout the entire European Union. Already, U.K.-based integrator netproject is undertaking a European Union-sanctioned program for helping some financial institutions and government agencies move to Linux. Microsoft has made too many enemies in Europe, given its continuing antitrust problems there and backlash in some countries to Licensing 6.