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Although the software juggernaut still has a massive share of the desktop and server operating systems market, a pesky little pretender known as Linux is starting to make inroads.

It's no secret that Microsoft consider's Linux to be mounting an increasingly credible challenge to the sales of Windows, particularly in the server market where this open source alternative truly excels.

The company has reportedly issued directives that its operatives must do whatever it takes to secure medium to large-sized deals when it goes head to head with Linux. Redmond seems ready to heavily discount Windows, or even give it away for free rather than lose a sale.

Unfortunately for Billy-boy, even this tactic hasn't slowed the rate at which some of its key accounts are defecting to the arguably cheaper and more secure world of Linux.

But just as all looked lost, in rides a ghost from Microsoft's past with a new weapon of mass destruction.

I refer to SCO, one of the oldest names in PC-based Unix systems.

SCO's secret weapon is the claim that Linux infringes some of SCO's intellectual property rights. On this basis, the company has filed a $1 billion lawsuit against IBM, alleging that big-blue's own version of Linux infringes SCO's IP.

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Supposedly, in a move to protect itself against similar litigation (didn't I predict that MS is preparing its own Linux product?), Microsoft has licensed the relevant Unix technology from SCO.

Some cynical observers are suggesting however, that this licensing move is simply a way for MS to add its own weight to a law suit that could pose a major threat to IBM and possibly the entire Linux industry.

Perhaps the strangest aspect of this whole drama is, that in purchasing this license, Microsoft has almost come full circle.

Those of us who have been in this industry for over 20 years will recall that way back in "the good old days" when it was primarily a vendor of programming languages, Microsoft had its own Unix product known as Xenix.

Truth be known, Xenix was little more than a licensed and rebranded version of SCO's Unix.

However, Microsoft seemed to have little interest in operating systems back in those days.

CP/M ruled the microcomputer marketplace and Xenix appeared to be decidedly out of place in the company's catalog -- something reflected by lacklustre sales and the product's quiet disappearance within a fairly short space of time.

Now, if Billy-boy had been smart enough to forge even stronger links with SCO, perhaps even taking a significant shareholding, maybe Redmond would today be in a much stronger position to fend off the Linux threat.

Microsoft doesn't make many mistakes, but perhaps this was one.

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