Main Area and Open Discussion > Living Room
Microsoft takes on the free world
app103:
Microsoft claims that free software like Linux, which runs a big chunk of corporate America, violates 235 of its patents. It wants royalties from distributors and users. Users like you, maybe.
--- End quote ---
Gutierrez refuses to identify specific patents or explain how they're being infringed, lest FOSS advocates start filing challenges to them.
But he does break down the total number allegedly violated - 235 - into categories. He says that the Linux kernel - the deepest layer of the free operating system, which interacts most directly with the computer hardware - violates 42 Microsoft patents. The Linux graphical user interfaces - essentially, the way design elements like menus and toolbars are set up - run afoul of another 65, he claims. The Open Office suite of programs, which is analogous to Microsoft Office, infringes 45 more. E-mail programs infringe 15, while other assorted FOSS programs allegedly transgress 68.
--- End quote ---
If push comes to shove, would Microsoft sue its customers for royalties, the way the record industry has?
"That's not a bridge we've crossed," says CEO Ballmer, "and not a bridge I want to cross today on the phone with you."
--- End quote ---
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/05/28/100033867/index.htm?section=money_latest
gjehle:
well, this sounds like SCO all over again.
i think it just FUD FUD FUD.
MS has been sponsoring SCO anyways.
justice:
Their marketshare must have dropped below 99% :huh: Why do they play it like this? If they asked for changes because this library violates these patents, people might collaborate. Sounds a lot like tactics to scare IT managers. Are they trying to affect the image of linux in the corporate world?
jgpaiva:
I sure hope MS will lose.
The problem is the money the FOSS community will spend in the meantime :(
Gothi[c]:
hahaha 235,... is that all they could come up with? I mean, given that they even attempted to copyright stuff like 'double clicking'... I'm sure, just like their 'double click' patent, these are full of prior art and vague definitions. If Xerox patented their windowing interface which Apple and then Microsoft stole, they could easily sue Microsoft, Apple, and most of the software world; but do they? No, because any sane person would know that it would be like sueing someone for using a fork or knife.
In all likeleyhood this is just a PR stunt, trying to scare users into thinking that using OSS = piracy. Either way, I think it will hurt them more than help them in the long run,... Users don't like to be incriminated.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version