[MW Forums]

Microsoft wants open-source software users to start paying royalties on 235 alleged software violations. more

[MGP]

And many thought MS would play nice with their new 'open' attitude toward open source. What they were actually doing was looking for a way to destroy it by getting to know it. Not surprising in the least.

[brycesteiner]

Microsoft you are sad, very sad. The sooner we can move to Linux and Mac the better everyone will be.
It's not like these Opensource folk copied code. These frivolous patent cases have gone way too far.
What if Ford sued all GM, Toyota and everyone else that uses a steering wheel because they believed they had one first? If Apple lost their suit back when windows came out, MS should lose too and they should cite that case as the precedent.

[bjanz]

Microsoft has made a major blunder here, for at least 2 reasons that I can think of.
1) If, indeed, there are patents that are being violated, and if the open-source community is able to find reasonably similar prior art (which probably exists), the latest Supreme Court decision might lead to those patents being invalidated because they were natural outgrowths ("common sense" as opposed to "nonobvious") of the preexisting code.
2) If, indeed, there are patents that are being violated, Microsoft will have to reveal exactly which patents are involved. Microsoft will be forced to do this to keep from being accused of scaring business for no apparent reason other than trying to increase Vista sales.
The "down side" for Microsoft here is that, once the patents are revealed, the open source community will move very quickly to generate non-infringing patches for the Linux kernel and any other programs. After which, of course, the threat of legal action vanishes -- and the rest of the technical community SEES the speed with which the open source community rushes to fix problems in code "in the field".
Microsoft, by making an empty threat against the open source community - a community of volunteers who have little love for Microsoft and its seemingly coercive methods to gain and entrap users - may have fired a shot into its own foot

[billmosby]

Perhaps this will add a big enough increment to awareness of the software patent mess that Congress will finally embark on a serious attempt to fix it. Since the doubly-linked list was patented about a year ago (# 7028023), we can be fairly sure that most software infringes at least one patent. Had enough yet?

[TexasMacMatt]

It's time to litigate all over again how much of the Mac's operating system Microsoft infringed on (but still can't get right). Vista is a complete cluster-.

[macwilf]

Oh yes, of course. It had to come to this. It is in their DNA. It sounds a little desperate, though. And it gives them a "good" reputation, of course.
It also shows that they're bigger than Apple. Apple only went after a few bloggers and such. MS goes after the entire open source, trying to claim it isn't open source at all, just software piracy. Well, good luck in digging your own grave, Microsoft. It'll be a big one and will take years to get down to six feet, but keep on like this and you'll get there, sooner or later /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[fibercut]

All I can say is OMG. So what is Linux? A copy of Unix? Now Microsoft say it is a copy of Microsoft patents. This is almost laughable until one realizes that Microsoft has HUGE cash reserves and litigation from these student patent claims will predatory smash their largest threat to Windows Server instead of innovating Windows Server to compete. Just try to pay for the Server licensees and you will see what I am talking about. Apple OS X Server will be Microsoft's next patent victim, just wait it will happen.

[Rhywun]

I can see how the user-interface of OpenOffice might infringe on Microsoft patents. "Writer" is almost a clone of "Word", for example. But I'm having a much harder time imagining how a Unix-based kernel infringes on a non-Unix-based one. Unless Microsoft is trying to claim patents on concepts like "file" or "process"....

[brycesteiner]

Since Darwin (OSX) is open source, does that mean MS now believes it has a case against apple? Doesn't Apple use Opensource in it's code (ie. Samba)?

[ShermanHoman]

Also calls into question whether 10.5 will ever get NTFS read/write capability.

[billmosby]

Quote:

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...Unless Microsoft is trying to claim patents on concepts like "file" or "process"....

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If someone has the time to do a bit of searching on their patents, it would not surprise me one bit that they have claimed something just as silly, and that they have a better than even chance of being able to enforce same. I wish I were kidding.

[elCapiton]

I guess you can say that's what they get for making most linux window managers look extremely similar to Windows. I wish that they would actually make it look different rather than have a similar task bar, start menu, system tray etc. I still think software patents are evil, don't get me wrong, but some of the linux people really should think outside the box instead of trying to make it look like windows.

[kwill]

Quote:

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Microsoft has been laying the groundwork for patent claims against Linux and open-source software for some time. Most notably, the Redmond, Wash., software company signed a Linux deal with Novell that indemnifies the company against Microsoft patent claims over Linux. Last week, Dell joined the deal, becoming the first hardware vendor to do so.
Microsoft has struck other deals with hardware makers. In April, Samsung Electronics and Microsoft signed a cross-licensing agreement that included a clause that indemnified Samsung against Linux patent claims.

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This sounds suspiciously like the coercion for which Microsoft is famous. Are these hardware manufacturers downplaying Linux products in favor of Microsoft?