Friday, November 17, 2006

Its Not Suse Linux Its Microsoft owns intellectual property that is in Linux!!!

A lot of people were initially surprised by Microsoft's deal with Novell that effectively admitted that some companies might actually want to use Linux. However, in the days following the deal, as more people dissected it, they began to realize that perhaps it was a trojan horse. While it "protected" users of Suse Linux, many people pointed out that suggested that Microsoft might believe that users of any other Linux were open to a lawsuit. Of course, it didn't take long for Steve Ballmer to confirm this for everyone. In a recent talk, he clearly stated that he believes Microsoft owns intellectual property that is in Linux. Microsoft has hinted at this in the past, so it's really not a huge surprise -- but if he's going to say such things, he ought to back it up by actually showing what's infringing or filing a lawsuit. Otherwise it's idle talk. And, paying someone else to make the same claims doesn't really count. Either way, for a news story that originally came out as Microsoft becoming more friendly with Linux, it's certainly turned 180 degrees pretty fast.

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