Which is the winning side and which is the losing side in the endless exchange of words, threats, and rebuttals? We have spotted evidence that suggests weaknesses thrive in the side of the offense, which is gradually losing its appeal. Among the flood of encoraging news about increasing adoption of Free software, there is also plenty that mentions the recent set of attacks as a key indicator of success.

Here is one such column from an eWeek Analyst.

...there was one aspect of this whole circus that struck me immediately upon seeing the news. And that was that this whole effort of FUD on the part of Microsoft is a clear sign that they have given up. Microsoft has been fighting a war for the last several years, and this announcement about the 235 patents was as clear as a white flag that they have given up on ever winning that war.

Which war is it that I'm referring to? It's the war over you, the IT worker and administrator.

Here is another one, which also bothers to mention Dell's milestone -- one which we have neglected to point out, until now.

One thing is for sure, and despite Microsoft's official denials; open source software is the biggest threat the company faces to its world-beating business model.

This was further underlined with Dell's announcement that it was shipping a range of desktops and notebooks with open source operating system Ubuntu preloaded.