Randall Shimizu wrote:
For Microsoft to claim patent violations and then to refuse to
identify them is the height of arrogance. This amounts to nothing
less than corporate blackmail
Um ... like ... DUH.
Look, this is all about the lack of Vista uptake. My guess is that more
than a few mid-size businesses are threatening Microsoft with Linux.
Vista is actually painful enough that Linux is probably on the radar.
Vista needs major hardware upgrades. Vista doesn't support a lot of
hardware. Vista locks down non-compliant hardware. Vista changes a lot
of UI interaction.
In short, Linux is probably comparable in terms of hardware support and
has the bonus of *not* requiring major hardware upgrades.
So, if you have to retrain your users, you might as well look at Linux.
This isn't about the big guns, and it isn't about individual users. It
is an extortion threat to mid-size companies--"Threaten us with Linux
and you may see lawyers rather than a price break."
It's hard to see how the Linux interface violates the MS patents when
they originally licensed it from Xerox Parc. Basically Microsoft's
theory is that everything that they extend and embrace becomes their
intellectual property. Microsoft incoporated code from IBM's Lan
Server and then claimed it was their IP.
Maybe, maybe not. However, I *guarantee* that OpenOffice violates some
Microsoft patents. Those are Microsoft formats and have *something*
they patented in them.
Microsoft doesn't have to shut down Linux. It just needs to stop
interoperability with Office. That's just as good. If you can't
migrate your Office documents, you can't convert your business to Linux.
If you can't migrate your old documents, then Microsoft pulls things
along until Vista gets entrenched. It's all about this quarter and the
next.
Microsoft has stated that they would prefer to license than litigate
it's patent disputes with OSS and Linux. So basically MS is hoping to
generate enough FUD to coerce companies into licensing OSS and Linux
software. Hopefully the EU will show more guts than the DOJ has.
Most of the EU doesn't have software patents so can safely ignore this
completely. This is basically directed at American companies.
Microsoft's current action would seem to give the anti-software patent
forces a huge boost.
I read the current Microsoft action as an acknowledgment that they think
that they will not get software patents passed anywhere else so they
might as well get some money out of what they do have.
-a
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