(January 22, 2002) - First Microsoft launched its .NET Alerts service, then AOL Time Warner quickly replied with AOL Alerts. Now it seems that the two giant companies may be on course to start facing off in an arena even larger than that of instant messaging.

Might AOL Time Warner be on the verge of sealing some type of licensing deal with Durham, N.C.-based Linux manufacturer Red Hat? Or even trying to buy Red Hat outright?

The Washington Post reported last week that such an acquisition was being discussed, though no one since has been able to confirm such reports. But even just a move to license, rather than acquire, Red Hat could suggest that AOL Time Warner is shaping up to challenge the so-called "Wintel" (Windows + Intel) domination of the desktop scene. And any challenge to Windows is, implicitly, a challenge to .NET since the Web services paradigm that Microsoft is trying to shift the world toward relies on proprietary lock-in to the Windows OS.

If AOL is truly on the lookout for non-Microsoft software, then one possibility would be that it intended to begin bundling Red Hat's Linux OS with, say, the AOL software it hands out free. This would over time erode the vast 90% stranglehold that Windows currently has on the desktop OS market.

Since AOL Time Warner has not been afraid to re-engineer the Netscape browser that it now owns in an attempt to make it superior to MS Internet Explorer, it is impossible to discount the notion that maybe the media conglomerate has set its sights on doing battle with MS in its OS heartland.

What do you think? (Read and respond©)