The dirty little secret that public corporations don't talk about is that they NEED TO PAY SOMEBODY. Freeware, shareware, and ad supported software are good for many things, but as soon as something goes wrong (and it will), someone must be held accountable. Imagine management telling ownership that "Google lost our data and there's nothing we can do about it."
Microsoft's position may be threatened in the future, but only by someone willing to take on that responsibility.
IBM is making bank on that need. They offer Free and Open Source software, but take on the accountability and support. There's big money there, but I think you have to have some major clout to really take advantage of it.
Microsoft's position may be threatened in the future, but only by someone willing to take on that responsibility.