>Let's just hope that Microsoft will still be there in 12 months :-D

Or not... :-)

We have Mono to replace .NET (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mono_%28software%29), and many free alternatives for all of their software products. Once MS is out of the way, companies will VERY QUICKLY ramp up product development and bug fixes on free software alternatives because they have no choice.

Microsoft dying would be a fantastic boon to the software world.