Glitz Posted November 7, 2002 Report Share Posted November 7, 2002 Check it out: http://www.opensource.org/halloween/halloween7.php It seems we're winning :D Glitz. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JaseP Posted November 8, 2002 Report Share Posted November 8, 2002 I just posted a link about the memo found in the 11/8/02 CNN website... Looks like we're winning, but we had better batten down the hatches in preparation for lawsuits,... I think the spin is that they know that threats of lawsuits are most effective in the USA and Sweeden... But on the other hand, they are slowly loosing the server battle,... to be expected,... We need to continue to bring in new Linux converts. The more people using Linux on their desktop, the more likely that we will see a big "BDM" (Business Decision Maker) as they call it, make a switch to Linux to save money and headaches later on (both in terms of $$$ and proprietary data, in nature). I am trying to do my part by demonstrating Linux to computer user groups. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glitz Posted November 9, 2002 Author Report Share Posted November 9, 2002 Ya, the lawsuits could be a problem. That's why adoption of open standards is so important. Glitz. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Heru Posted November 10, 2002 Report Share Posted November 10, 2002 What patents does MS actually own that could cause us a headache? While it is possible that they could sue over things lije the .doc and.rtf file formats, or over the MONO project, they likely wouldn't be able to get far. They know full well that none of these projects include MS's proprietary code, they are reverse engineered under the terms of the DMCA. I don't foresee losing lawsuits, I foresee a financial hit as a result of useless law suits brought on by MS. As someone said before me, that's why open standards are needed. This is why Open Office's XML based file format needs to become the de-facto standard; this is why the MONO project is dangerous, since it is like saying we can't survive without MS's self proclaimed standards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glitz Posted November 10, 2002 Author Report Share Posted November 10, 2002 It's the "financial hit" part that is the most devestating. It would be enough to stop development of most open source projects if they were specifically targetted. And believe me, these guys own a lot of patents covering obscure little things we don't even give a second thought about but use every day. A patent doesn't just cover complex or particularly innovative things. It could be as simple as a spring that you place on your wiper blades to increase the force with which they push down on the windshield. Or it could be something as simple as allowing you to provide a transformation matrix to a graphics driver to allow you to do 3D rotations (I made that one up but it technically could have been patented). But I do know that Microsoft has recently acquired the rights to quite a few patents from SGI regarding methods used in OpenGL. Glitz. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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