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I'm worried over Linux's future.

The recent news that some corporate types are paying a license fee to Microsoft for supposedly infringing MS patents is serious.

It seems that SCO was only MS's way of testing out the waters to assert its own claims against Linux and use it to profit from or to destroy Linux. Apparently there have been payments for some kind of license to MS from Redhat and some big corporate interests just to fend off another larger and more serious legal assault from Microsoft.

I think the scale of the threat needs to become better known in the community and the infringing code, if any, needs to be rewritten.

IBM and Novell had better get busy with this, given that the SCO battle was only a proxy for M$ and the real battle to come.

Apple is in a better position here but is probably not entirely invulnerable. However, their old patents on GUI and some of the precedents should help them resist such a legal attack on them. And having so many billions in the bank helps too.

I'm happy to see Apple going for full UNIX 2003 certification for Leopard (OS X 10.5). The inclusion of DTrace for debugging and ZFS filesystem, both from Sun, is really excellent.

I'm worried over Linux's future.

Well if they weren't making such perfect copies of other people's stuff like Apple's GUI, while claiming protections of those things such as by patents was somehow "evil", maybe they'd find things a little easier going.

^^^^^^^^^^^^I'm worried over Linux's future.

The recent news that some corporate types are paying a license fee to Microsoft for supposedly infringing MS patents is serious.^^^^^^^^^^^^

Yeah, it raises serious questions though I don't think ultimately we'll have too much to worry about.

IBM over there is the sleeping giant, and they're on our side. Besides, Red Hat continues to become this unstoppable juggernaut and I continue to expect great things from them in the future.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Apparently there have been payments for some kind of license to MS from Redhat and some big corporate interests just to fend off another larger and more serious legal assault from Microsoft.^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I wouldn't be surprised. However, these types of things won't go on forever.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^I'm happy to see Apple going for full UNIX 2003 certification for Leopard (OS X 10.5). The inclusion of DTrace for debugging and ZFS filesystem, both from Sun, is really excellent.^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Yeah, I definately like the new apple. IMHO OS10 was the best thing that Apple ever did, but with the availability of linux it's too little too late, at least for me personally.

At one point, buying a mac might have been in the cards but not now. The platform is *W*A*Y* too closed for my likes. At least now the OS is somewhat open, but now I can have my cake and eat it too. Largely open hardware and software.