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| Author |
Message |
| 12 new of 36 responses total. |
easlern
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response 25 of 36:
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Nov 6 14:03 UTC 2006 |
I don't think there's too much reason to worry about Microsoft "burying"
Linux. It wouldn't make sense to pay a bunch of engineers to work on a free
OS, and I don't see it being vulnerable to lawsuits, except maybe in the way
some programs use Windows media files.
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cross
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response 26 of 36:
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Nov 6 17:40 UTC 2006 |
The big thing is that Microsoft views Linux as a threat, and they could
(perhaps) legally stop it by claiming patent infringement for certain
technologies and/or techniques that Linux uses that Microsoft holds patents
for. Often times, someone might think they invent a new technique only to
find that it's actually close enough to something that already exists that
it would be covered by a pre-existing patent. This can certainly happen
without the re-inventor even realizing it.
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gull
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response 27 of 36:
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Nov 6 18:45 UTC 2006 |
Re resp:23: That's because it's a non-issue for Gentoo. The only
people who care about this are business users who want pre-packaged
distribution and a support agreement.
Personally, I don't think Microsoft is about to launch any kind of
patent suit. They don't want to end up looking like fools, like SGI
did, and they know that even if they won enforcing the decision would
be a nightmare. What they want is to keep that cloud of FUD hanging
over Linux, so boardroom types see it as a risky choice.
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gull
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response 28 of 36:
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Nov 6 18:46 UTC 2006 |
It's also worth noting that, given Microsoft's past anti-trust
problems, having the appearance of competition in the OS market is
actually *good* for them. They don't want to get rid of Linux, they
just want to keep it tamped down so it's not a serious threat.
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twenex
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response 29 of 36:
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Nov 6 19:01 UTC 2006 |
Yep, which is why I'm worried about Novell Linux being the only Loinux out
there that's legal. Once that happens, they can buy Novell and tank it, like
a la FoxPro.
Oh, and by the way, when you say SGI, I think you mean SCO?
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gull
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response 30 of 36:
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Nov 7 01:42 UTC 2006 |
Yeah, good catch.
Again, though, the OS market is NOT just like any other for Microsoft.
They've had anti-trust litigation filed against them in the past. If
they start buying out competing OSs and dumping them, they're opening
that can of worms up again.
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twenex
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response 31 of 36:
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Nov 7 01:53 UTC 2006 |
That's true, however, if the MS-Novell agreement and the threat of patent
lawsuits against other distributors of Linux and their clients/users results
in the death of all other commercial Linux distributors, MS can point and say,
"It was the market wot did it!"
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herasleftnut
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response 32 of 36:
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Nov 7 14:49 UTC 2006 |
So I was like I found out the worldpacs LDAP servers use SRV format for the
DNS thingy.
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twenex
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response 33 of 36:
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Nov 7 19:22 UTC 2006 |
I've come to the conclusion that MS DO want to wipe out non-Novell Linux, but
that they're using the threat of patent infringement to do it (and actually
have no intention of filing any patent lawsuits.) So I'm not going to spread
their FUD for 'em anymore.
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noorul
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response 34 of 36:
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Nov 14 18:58 UTC 2006 |
Whatever happens linux can't be killed. It is a kernel not an operating
system. Let Suse/RedHat/Ubuntu/Slackware die, still I can run Linux on my
machine. I dont understand why this talk about distributions?
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easlern
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response 35 of 36:
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Nov 14 19:05 UTC 2006 |
I guess part of the fear is that if a distribution backed by MS gets popular
enough, it could gain support from the development community, who may also
begin influencing development on the kernel? Not sure if that's realistic,
but it's the only way I can imagine this making an impact on Linux in general.
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gull
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response 36 of 36:
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Nov 17 21:09 UTC 2006 |
Distributions already influence the kernel to some degree, mostly by
submitting their patches back to the kernel development team. This is
a Good Thing, generally.
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