In an already tough IT environment, and with Windows 7 garnering buzz, Microsoft(MSFT Quote) may have to sleep with one eye open.One bright spot in an otherwise dampened earnings report showed that Novell's(NOVL Quote) revenue related to its Linux open-source platform -- a chief rival to Windows -- was up 25.5% to $36.6 million from the same quarter a year ago.

Next week's European antitrust ruling against Microsoft Corp (NasdaqGS:MSFT - News) is a legacy of its past behavior, but competitors say the company's current strategy is a sign of history repeating itself.

The impressive news last week that Microsoft Corp. posted its "first ever" decline in year-over-year quarterly sales and that revenues fell 6 percent, has set many tongues wagging in the tech world.

It's a radical departure, this news from Microsoft (MSFT) that openness between its products and the rest of the universe is more than a hollow platitude. To take Microsoft at its Word, given this release, is to open an era of an entirely new Microsoft. But is it?

It's that time of the year again. Here's next week's news, so you won't miss anything:

- Ron Hovsepian will talk up the benefits of Novell's Microsoft deal.

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It's bad enough that Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) with its big war chest might sue you for producing open source software. But what's really hard to take is the suggestion that you stooped to stealing Microsoft code for your project. At the Open Source Business Conference this week in San Francisco, one show organizer got his revenge.

I've long thought it funny when Microsoft-fans would tell me how Linux, open-source, the Mac, whatever would never be important because Microsoft products were clearly better. Now, everyone can get on the joke as Microsoft's earnings plummeted in the last quarter by over 30%.

While it’s true that you hear it here last, generally, a week is a bit much, even for me. But as we’re still fielding questions about the news that Microsoft had filed a complaint over alleged infringed patents against TomTom, Dutch manufacturer of navigation systems, it seems necessary to comment.

As our software becomes more Web-centric and our devices cheaper, Linux is becoming the operating system on everyone’s lips for 2009. Sorry, Microsoft [MSFT]. If this week’s news is any indication, you’ve been served.