Today Microsoft has offered a USD 500,000 bounty for information leading to the arrest of the writers of viruses MSBlast and Sobig. Last Saturday, the Guardian had a story on how Microsoft is looking for a way to take over Google. So Microsoft still has plenty of money.

On Monday, the CEO of Linux vendor Red Hat Matthew Szulik said:

'...although Linux is capable of exceeding expectations for corporate users, home users should stick with Windows: "I would say that for the consumer market place, Windows probably continues to be the right product line," he said. "I would argue that from the device-driver standpoint and perhaps some of the other traditional functionality, for that classic consumer purchaser, it is my view that (Linux) technology needs to mature a little bit more."'

This sounds like an advertisement! Maybe Mr. Szulik is just looking for some of that legendary Gates cash? Some of the Brazilian FLOSS gnomes we've spoken to think so. Anyway, I've been having fun installing SuSE desktops here in Costa Rica, and so far everyone has been absolutely thrilled to FDISK their hot English copies of Win98 and Office 97, to replace them with Linux and OpenOffice in Spanish. Maybe it just depends on where you live.

Now, the thought of buying Red Mond Linux is striking us here as very strange, but you can't ignore the hint of wistful courtship in Szulik's statement.

Willy Smith, reporting from Costa Rica