Microsoft has done for software…
November 19th, 2006 by timelady
…what McDonald’s did for the hamburger.
Well, the recent Novell/Microsoft deal is causing lots of issues. Unsurprisingly. Looks like the potential patent litigation will keep Groklaw busy for years, and the rest of us in the Linux community justifiably outraged.
Oh sure, some people were optimitistic. Novell, mainly. Microsoft wouldn’t abuse the deal, and go after Linux seriously, would they?
Steve Ballmer of Microsoft, and known Linux hater, has pretty well dispelled that fantasy. The man hath spoken: “Microsoft was motivated to sign a deal with SUSE Linux distributor Novell Inc. earlier this month because Linux ‘uses our intellectual property’ and Microsoft wanted to ‘get the appropriate economic return for our shareholders from our innovation.’”
Microsoft, that king of patent theft, errumm, ethics….
Groklaw predicted this. The Samba team saw it coming. Open letter to Novell : noone is fooled.
In answer to fud about Open Source costs - read this and be educated.
One more Linux bit : Dell is now refunding the ridiculous cost of Windows when you buy a new computer to those of us who DON’T USE WINDOWS! About time. Why should we pay for software we don’t want?
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