Billionaire Ballmer: Asking for trouble and for more money
The enemy
Microsoft claims software like Linux violates its patents – May 28, 2007 — I guess these guys finally gave up on the idea that SCO would do this for them. This is a seriously bad idea.
But now there’s a shadow hanging over Linux and other free software, and it’s being cast by Microsoft. The Redmond behemoth asserts that one reason free software is of such high quality is that it violates more than 200 of Microsoft’s patents. And as a mature company facing unfavorable market trends and fearsome competitors like Google, Microsoft is pulling no punches: It wants royalties. If the company gets its way, free software won’t be free anymore.
OK Microsoft..show us the patents!!! And show us the violations. IBM will have a field day with this.
found by Dennis Duffner
Groklaw (www.groklaw.net) has it right–with the recent KSR Supreme Court decision saying you can’t patent the obvious combined with Groklaw’s research capabilities on prior art, Microsoft isn’t going to file a patent suit. It’s just Steve Ballmer FUD flatulence.
I don’t buy ANY Microsoft products, either hardware or software. My four boxes at home all run Linux all the time. No Microsoft mice, no Microsoft keyboards, no Microsoft X-boxes, no Microsoft anything. And I intend to keep it that way.
No the NT kernel is not based on Dos (it is a good or bad clone of VMS and some left over good from OS/2). The drive letters and command prompt of just left over for legacy in order to not brake applications.
The NT kernel supports layered personalities (or subsystems). The latest version of Vista has a Unix subsystem (though broken and outdated) within it. If Microsoft wanted to, they could rewrite a new API & subsystem on top of the NT kernel (though for legacy sake they probably will not).
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#31…congrats on your Microsoft free lifestyle, however, at some point in the future you will have to stop drinking the cool aid and realize that it is simply an OS (it is not a movement or a way of life). I have already been on three trips: OS/2 (early teens), Linux (college years), and OSX (later college years) andand I simply have no interest in going on anymore.
I will admit though that Ubuntu 7.04 and Slackware (latest) do look a little interesting. When I did run GNU/Linux I also liked Debian and hated, Redhat (whether it was the last few desktop releases or the enterprise series).
Microsoft is really screwing itself with this asinine action.
First, there are no software patent laws in Europe and most of Asia. All this will do is piss off people in those countries, but they’ll still be legally free to continue using, promoting, and writing open source software.
Second, those that do have software patent laws, simply will not give a crap what Microsoft wants. Japan has software patent laws but has also just announced that it’s going to switch to open source. Does anyone really thing Japan is going to give a rats ass about Microsoft’s patents?
Look at the two pictures. Windows users bathe and groom themselves while Linux users obviously do not. Draw what conclusions you will.
(Of course Stallman can’t even stand formatted e-mail – he wants plain text only. I don’t know why he even bothers with a computer.)
I’m not very happy with Microsoft right now, myself.
I build a computer to run a clean install of Vista
Ultimate for evaluation purposes and its been a bloody
nightmare. What started as a reasonably pleasant
experience has turned into root canal during
open-heart surgery. I don’t even know why it won’t
boot anymore.
I can’t even blog right now because I can’t use my day-job laptop for the task and my household computer is a lump of metal. Oh, well. It will eventually make for an interesting blog post for you guys once I get it all sorted out.
Looking forward to it. Personally, I wouldn’t touch Vista with a 10 ft.
keyboardpole..