Microsoft says Linux violates 235 patents!

Microsoft says Linux violates 235 patents
Microsoft claims that free software like Linux, which runs a big chunk of corporate America, violates 235 of its patents.

Free software is great, and corporate America loves it. It's often high-quality stuff that can be downloaded free off the Internet and then copied at will. It's versatile - it can be customized to perform almost any large-scale computing task - and it's blessedly crash-resistant. A broad community of developers, from individuals to large companies like IBM, is constantly working to improve it and introduce new features. No wonder the business world has embraced it so enthusiastically: More than half the companies in the Fortune 500 are thought to be using the free operating system Linux in their data centers.

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 (Charts, Fortune 500), Microsoft is pulling no punches: It wants royalties. If the company gets its way, free software won't be free anymore. The conflict pits Microsoft and its dogged CEO, Steve Ballmer, against the "free world" - people who believe software is pure knowledge. The leader of that faction is Richard Matthew Stallman, a computer visionary with the look and the intransigence of an Old Testament prophet.

Read Full Story: CNN

A surprising news but not much latest. This news was on Digit Mar 07 too. MS' business is probably affected by the linux and open-source community. So CEO of MS Steve Ballmer is seeing somehow to drop linux which is almost impossible! There a more than lakh Linux and OSS users.

So if Microsoft ever sued Linux distributor Red Hat for patent infringement, for instance, OIN might sue Microsoft in retaliation, trying to enjoin distribution of Windows. It's a cold war, and what keeps the peace is the threat of mutually assured destruction: patent Armageddon - an unending series of suits and countersuits that would hobble the industry and its customers.
"It's a tinderbox," Moglen says. "As the commercial confrontation between [free software] and software-that's-a-product becomes more fierce, patent law's going to be the terrain on which a big piece of the war's going to be fought. Waterloo is here somewhere."
Yes, free software is a more sophisticated concept than many people think, and it is subject to a legally enforceable license of its own. That license was written by free-software inventor Richard Stallman, who anticipated 20 years ago all the threats free software faces today. Foremost among those threats, Stallman understood, were patents.
A gifted developer and prickly, uncompromising individual, Stallman, 54, quit his job at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab in 1984 to found what he considered to be a social movement guided by ethical principles. He set forth those goals in the GNU Manifesto, where GNU (pronounced with a hard "g" and rhyming with "canoe") was an acronym for "GNU's Not Unix." (It's a "recursive" acronym, an inside joke that programmers get. Trust us.) Free software would guarantee users "freedoms" that were ordinarily forbidden by proprietary software licenses, including the ability to see the source code, alter it, copy it and redistribute it.
But while many people assume that Stallman simply ignored intellectual-property law, he actually mastered it and enlisted it in the quest to achieve his goals. He demanded that all contributors to GNU projects assign their copyrights to the Free Software Foundation, which Stallman set up and controlled. That meant that anyone who distributed free software covered by those copyrights had to abide by a license Stallman wrote, called the GNU General Public License (GPL).
The GPL has teeth: Lawyers for the Free Software Foundation have been able to force developers who incorporated free software into proprietary products to open up their source code, for instance.

*money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/05/28/100033867/index.htm
Come eat me M$!I'll be using FOSS.Hope M$ lovers understand the evil.
*www.nosoftwarepatents.com/
I know the main reason.Dell is soon selling Linux -preinstalled PC's.guess who is worried?

When will this stop ?

A

Actually Microsoft hate Linux and other companies which are competitive with it (as most of the companies do). So MS can see it's future in the black bcuase of the increasing popularity of Linux.

Yep! Its competition that makes news.....find faults in others.
Even in this forum we see mac guys fights against windows...Windows with Linux....
It has to be there for good.

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.

Now thats hilarious!

I hope they r happy that *nix department didn't copy the idea of BSODs.

remebers Gandhiji's :
"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."
Now it seems M$ is approaching 3rd way. :-|

Microsoft will keep saying these things without doing anything. They have done it in the past and they are doing it now as well. The main reason behind it is that Windows Server operating systems violate lots of IBM's server patents and if, ever, Microsoft sues Free Software world then IBM will be there to support the community. Now we all know what IBM's attorneys, popularly known as The Nazguls (

), can do in a court room. Just look at SCO and you will understand. Microsoft (specifically the Monkey Boy) will keep making these cheap shots but nothing concrete

Microsoft has all the rights to file a law suit if the patents are broken. Currently, I am not sure about what exactly the patent issues are. But if it's genuine, there is no problems at all. Anyone in such scenario will do the same thing. That is the reason of filing the patent. No one will tolerate it being broken. It's like breaking into company's property.

^ Yeah well why not...sure come out and sue...but the problem arises when the core of your server operating system business is infringing innumerable patents itself. Would you risk that core and mess with a company (IBM) that is known to destroy opposition in court rooms? Microsoft is much smarter...they will just keep throwing these claims to scare Linux customers rather then actually doing something. They are happy to dent Linux business in what ever small way they can do...its much better and safer that way.

mediator said:
Now thats hilarious!
I hope they r happy that *nix department didn't copy the idea of BSODs.

This is too much. OpenOffice and other OSS products are not copied from MS OFFICE etc. Infact Mr. Bill himself copied Unix from The Unix developers when it was being distributed 4 free. He copied the Source and made such a complicated OS. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.........

Chill out! All I'm asking is when did we started having patents on the design process? How can one copy the source of closed source app and still output the correct md5 of it?
Its not possible that in a world of trillions of people, all to have different thinking and ways of designing things. If the design cannot be same, then atleast it can be similar.
But then again what's the hype if the design is the same? After all the design copy happens a lot in software industry even MS copies stuff from other OS etc! What about the print mechanism and other functionailty that the UNIX had? The basic connectivity from telnet is even copied from UNIX.
So yes, I'm not bothered who copied from whome! But the source code shudn't be exact and a ditto copy! But saying that buttons, bars etc are copied from windows is just toooo childish!

eddie said:
^ Yeah well why not...sure come out and sue...but the problem arises when the core of your server operating system business is infringing innumerable patents itself. Would you risk that core and mess with a company (IBM) that is known to destroy opposition in court rooms? Microsoft is much smarter...they will just keep throwing these claims to scare Linux customers rather then actually doing something. They are happy to dent Linux business in what ever small way they can do...its much better and safer that way.

This is not about implications. I am speaking about the patent issue in particular.

software patents doesnot exists.

praka123 said:
software patents doesnot exists.

It does not exists in India. In america it does.

L

*www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1729908,00.asp

From a different angle, I see Linux's publicity!

Microsoft is a BEAST.

mediator said:
From a different angle, I see Linux's publicity!

what u mean?

Means a lotta people still don't know what Linux is! Ask ur mtnl admins about linux and then see the look on their faces! They still don't know if there's any other OS besides windows!

The more the world's business leader will talk about it, the more the people will get acknowledged about it!

N

BTW check the date on headline of CNN page...

28 May 2007 ...even link archive has been made using a future date.

Sorry for being offtopic.

mediator said:
Means a lotta people still don't know what Linux is! Ask ur mtnl admins about linux and then see the look on their faces! They still don't know if there's any other OS besides windows!

The more the world's business leader will talk about it, the more the people will get acknowledged about it!

What you say is true. I my locality, there is a computer shoppee. We are very old customers of that shop. He knows that i am a member of this forum. So he wanted me to post a thread to help him for which OS to install for his Cafe. I did not post any thread. He said he wanted a virus proof system.
All conversation in Hindi. Posting here in english

me said:
For a virus proof system, you should install Linux. It is available for free download.

He asked me:

computer fellow said:
Now What is Linux??

When he asked me that i started laughing there itself since linux is a OS since 1992 and in 2006 he dosen't know what is linux? hahahahahaha :lol:

You wont believe it but its the truth.

So u know what to do with that guy!

mediator said:
So u know what to do with that guy!

what?

Like our experienced windows users in this forum suggest, Tell him to use common sense and preach his customers the same! ROFL

T

praka123 said:
remebers Gandhiji's :
"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."
Now it seems M$ is approaching 3rd way.

For me it seems to be opposite on what gandhi said.

mediator said:
Like our experienced windows users in this forum suggest, Tell him to use common sense and preach his customers the same! ROFL

Yes. Hahahahahahahahaha :lol:

It's not just his case. It is due to bad marketing of Linux. When was the last time you saw an Add or SuSe or Ubuntu on TV or newspaper? Here is the thing; paid & good Windows alternate distros should be advertised more like Freespire etc

For a cyber care Linux is actually good, cos there are all sorts of users. In this sense a customized Linux distro will not only help in keeping the usage in control but will also stop the users from changing the configs of the OS which customers usually do.

Help your friend in configuring Linux for his cyber cafe. Like example Install some KDE based distro cos that’s closest to Windows in Looks. Then some Windows classic like theme or Vista like black theme. Install Beryl as Window manager if his hardware supports it. Then only put the links for that application which are required to run in this user like remove control panel from menu etc. Actually just a web browser + media player + pdf/doc viewer & writer, calculator, access to read & write in one folder only is good enough.

gx_saurav said:
It's not just his case. It is due to bad marketing of Linux. When was the last time you saw an Add or SuSe or Ubuntu on TV or newspaper? Here is the thing; paid & good Windows alternate distros should be advertised more like Freespire etc

For a cyber care Linux is actually good, cos there are all sorts of users. In this sense a customized Linux distro will not only help in keeping the usage in control but will also stop the users from changing the configs of the OS which customers usually do.

Help your friend in configuring Linux for his cyber cafe. Like example Install some KDE based distro cos that’s closest to Windows in Looks. Then some Windows classic like theme or Vista like black theme. Install Beryl as Window manager if his hardware supports it. Then only put the links for that application which are required to run in this user like remove control panel from menu etc. Actually just a web browser + media player + pdf/doc viewer & writer, calculator, access to read & write in one folder only is good enough.

Gud idea but first of all he has to know at least the basics of linux. Also i don't have time to do so.

M

gx_saurav said:
It's not just his case. It is due to bad marketing of Linux. When was the last time you saw an Add or SuSe or Ubuntu on TV or newspaper?

it can't cos the developers don't get extra money by ripping off end users.

gx_saurav said:
Here is the thing; paid & good Windows alternate distros should be advertised more like Freespire etc

Guess what! Freespire gets the least support from upstream developers cos it violates a lot of FOSS principles and it's one of the most shunned linux distros and quite rightly. Instead of promoting such crap, it should be rather eliminated.

gx_saurav said:
For a cyber care Linux is actually good, cos there are all sorts of users. In this sense a customized Linux distro will not only help in keeping the usage in control but will also stop the users from changing the configs of the OS which customers usually do.

gx baba and his wise adwise. Do you know how much time and effort goes into making a customised distro and maintaining it? I guess not. You even struggle with the basics and think that linux should be a windows clone. No way is that happening. And your ideas. Hardly any are good. And the good ones, you don't send upstream. If you do that, you might actually see some things change if developers believe it's a feasible and an important idea.
But, don't expect anything less than a 'get off' if you try to say remove CLI.

gx_saurav said:
Help your friend in configuring Linux for his cyber cafe. Like example Install some KDE based distro cos that’s closest to Windows in Looks.

I have shown, GNOME is also as much capable of being made vista-look alike but still it was an incomplete effort cos I am very bad at it.
And there's an article that GNOME can be made to look like Mac OS X.
So, that's just a stupid theory going around that KDE is more a windows look alike.
It more like: -
more complexity and integrated programs => KDE
less complexity and more diverse approach =>GNOME
less resources => XFCE

gx_saurav said:
Then some Windows classic like theme or Vista like black theme. Install Beryl as Window manager if his hardware supports it.

not needed. Why waste unnecessary resources. But, well I'd leave that to the descretion(I hope you know the meaning of the word) of the people implementing the idea.

Linux need not change its attires to look like M$ Vista.
read this article: Linux is not windows==
*linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm
@mehulved:
I liked ur answer regarding Desktops.GNOME serves my needs perfectly.
I just saw a statement here:

Linux in the Future

There is a trend under Linux to build complex, rich desktop environments which allow rich interaction between programs. These environments could, if not designed correctly, increase the chances for viruses to execute and propagate. So far, however, the designers of these environments seem to be following sensible design and security procedures. No-one, for example, has built a Linux e-mail client which automatically executes an attachment with just one mouse click.
*linuxmafia.com/~rick/skoll/anti-virus.php