Microsoft’s latest Windows software this year isn’t all about the desktop, it is a new version of Windows Server 2003 that will be the first in several years. While it is conventional wisdom that Linux is its biggest competitor, my thought for today is that Linux will have to take a second seat to the real challenge: getting people to convert from NT. Surprise: Microsoft’s secret enemy is inertia, or itself.

At our XChange conference last week, a representative from Redmond stated that there are at least 4 million NT servers out in the wild that are ripe for the upgrading. (And that isn’t counting all the ones on Microsoft’s own network either. Or maybe it is.) Our own surveys done for the upcoming State of Enterprise Spending issue at VARBusiness show that enterprises are still moderately investing in NT, holding about the same market share as Linux at 37 percent. No matter whose numbers you trust, that’s a lot of NT lying around that no one is too thrilled about having to touch going forward.

You can read the entire essay here.