thelinuxlink.net

... but still won't say which patents FOSS supposedly infringes.

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/ ... /index.htm

Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith and licensing chief Horacio Gutierrez sat down with Fortune recently to map out their strategy for getting FOSS users to pay royalties. Revealing the precise figure for the first time, they state that FOSS infringes on no fewer than 235 Microsoft patents.

Microsoft is obviously lying. I'm a FOSS user and I have not infringed on any software patents... EVER!

In fact, in Canada, you cannot patent software. So, Brad and his boss Bill Gates can royally f*ck right off, as far as I'm concerned!

Judland wrote:Microsoft is obviously lying. I'm a FOSS user and I have not infringed on any software patents... EVER!

In fact, in Canada, you cannot patent software. So, Brad and his boss Bill Gates can royally f*ck right off, as far as I'm concerned!

well said!

we all can't forget the emoticons patent - along with the fat patent that they got after fat has been out twenty years. what a joke.

microsoft is a scared company - they are taking from their savings so they can still make a profit. nobody is touching vista and I can't blame them. they have to realize that people can have a quite enoyable computing experience without any money going to redmond. they just can't seem to accept that fact.

I just wish everyone would just take the gloves off and go at it. I am sick of talking and hearing about micosoft's crying about how everyone that touches a keyboard owes them money. Let's just get it over with.

I wonder how many violations of the GPL that microsoft has in it's code. I am sure there are some if you can get through the spaghetti and signe your coding life away with nda's.

The one thing that article does not do is point out the fact that Free Software respects Intellectual Property more than proprietary software. The code is out there for everyone to see so you know if someone is stealing your stuff. You just can't do that with proprietary software without signing your coding life away with nda's.

anyway here's to microsoft' total demise maybe it is closer than I think and I will get to see it in my lifetime.

Balmer versus Raymond. Cage Match. No Holds Barred.

Snarkout wrote:Balmer versus Raymond. Cage Match. No Holds Barred.

ESR knows Taekwondo, and has several firearms... so...

I missed this the first time I read it.. Microsoft further breaks down the infringing patents as follows:

At the same time, Smith was having Microsoft's lawyers figure out how many of its patents were being infringed by free and open-source software. 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.

Great ending to the article:

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."

GPLv3 is now the only thing that will stop MS from doing deals directly with Linux distributors like they did with Novell. GPLv3 is the single most important thing protecting Linux and FOSS in general, and it's sad that people as smart as Torvalds can't see it.

greggh wrote:IGPLv3 is now the only thing that will stop MS from doing deals directly with Linux distributors like they did with Novell. GPLv3 is the single most important thing protecting Linux and FOSS in general, and it's sad that people as smart as Torvalds can't see it.

So true.

this is why the free software foundation is till relevant

what could kill m$ if they decide to go for inividuals , look what happened to sony and emi , there offering drm free music plus if you have one of there fscked cds you can get it exchanged for a good version.

Come on now we all should know that MS has many important patents,
the C main function, the blue of the sky, the chemical composition of air, the concepts of addition, subtraction...
Talk is cheap, let MS proof their claims, I grow tired of the BS.

jaz wrote:Come on now we all should know that MS has many important patents,
the C main function, the blue of the sky, the chemical composition of air, the concepts of addition, subtraction...
Talk is cheap, let MS proof their claims, I grow tired of the BS.

You know what we need? We need language patents, then I'm gonna patent the concept of dialects and go sue every citizen in India and China.

http://news.google.com/?ncl=1116311757&hl=en

This is good. Seriously.

It will A) force the Supreme Court to finally decide on the
constitutionality of Software Patents altogether, and/or B) finally
force Microsoft to explicitly describe in what way Linux violates its
patents. Once developers know what is affected (whether or not it's
completely BOGUS), they can rewrite/rework the affected software and
we can get on with the downfall of Microsoft.

Time to donate...


https://www.fsf.org/associate/support_freedom/donate

treehead

Note that I used the incorrect english word proof above, my spelling is bad when my blood pressure goes up, all for the best though, MS probably has the word "prove" trademarked!

Snarkout wrote:Balmer versus Raymond. Cage Match. No Holds Barred.

That would be over in less than 30 seconds.

treehead