[ale] What do y'all think about Microsoft's new war?

[Warren Myers]

another point to note is that a big lot of the FLOSS world is *not* in the
US. Ubuntu and Canonical is based out of South Africa. Just because
something is patented here doesn't mean it is there.

WMM

On 5/14/07, Mark Wright <mpwright at speedfactory.net> wrote:
>
> I think that Microsoft is really desperate.  The FSF lawyer they kept
> quoting was pretty optimistic that this could blow up on Microsoft.  I
> think  the fact that what they are doing it is a sign of corporate hubris,
> stupidity and desperation.
> What it boils down to is lots of companies hold lots of ridiculous patents
> of unpatentable ideas.  Microsoft being the most needy is trying to go in
> and broker detent with other large patent holders saying if you won't sue us
> we won't sue you.  (Windows infringes on many stupid patents held my the
> likes of IBM and Sun.  Most of these companies realize their patents won't
> stand up in court but it is the cost of litigation that makes the patent
> valuable to the holder.)  The result though is calculated to leave no legal
> room for FOSS.
>
> Worst case this could be mutually assured destruction for a lot of the
> computer industry.  For us though as individual users I don't see how this
> can hurt us much and benefit Microsoft any.  Nothing Ubuntu or Debian or
> OpenBSD or even Mandriva is going to change little if any because Microsoft
> can pressure large corporations into deals that cost Microsoft millions and
> violates the GPL.  It will just be tons of bad will and bad press for
> Microsoft.
>
>
>
>
> On May 14, 2007, at 1:39 PM, Michael B. Trausch wrote:
>
> This is disturbing to me.<http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/05/28/100033867/index.htm>
> Microsoft has pretty much declared war on all of us.  What happens if they
> succeed?  Do you think they will?
>
> I am sure that we all remember that back in November, Microsoft and Novell
> entered into an agreement<http://www.microsoft.com/interop/msnovellcollab/open_letter.mspx>,
> stating that Microsoft was coming to terms with Linux.  Interesting that now
> they are pretty much saying that Free Software violates them and they are
> pretty much threatening to take action against Free Software.  They want to
> destroy freedom.
>
> They're claiming that "the Linux kernel ... violates 42 Microsoft
> patents", "Linux [GUIs violate] another 65", "[OpenOffice.org] ...
> infringes 45 more", "E-mail programs infringe 15", and "other assorted FOSS
> programs allegedly transgress 68".
>
> Is anyone else getting really sick of this crap?
>
>     -- Mike
>
> --
>  Michael B. Trausch fd0man at gmail.com
>  Phone: (404) 592-5746  Jabber IM: fd0man at gmail.com
> fd0man at livejournal.com
>  *Demand Freedom!  Use **open** and **free** protocols, standards, and
> software!*
> "What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without
> evidence." ?Christopher Hitchens
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-- 
http://warrenmyers.com
"God may not play dice with the universe, but something strange is going on
with the prime numbers." --Paul Erd?s
"It's not possible. We are the type of people who have everything in our
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