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Microsoft takes on the free world (Gates wants royalties on Linux)
Fortune Magazine ^ | May 13, 2007 | Roger Parloff

Posted on 05/13/2007 4:05:27 PM PDT by Zakeet

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To: Constantine XIII
Plus, if MS sues, they’ll have to highlight just which parts of the Linux kernel violate their patents. Any code that might offends can be repaired in six months.

Maybe, maybe not. Software patents covers processes and methodologies so it may not be as simple as just rewriting the code a little differently to accomplish the exact the exact same thing.

This is the problem with software patents and patents in general in the digital age - they are too broad and too easy to obtain.

To illustrate how ludicrous the process is, a company called Gemstar patented the "idea" of presenting TV listings in a grid like format. All cable systems and devices like Tivo had to pay Gemstar a royalty to display the listing in such a format. Fortunately, this patent is starting to be broken.

141 posted on 05/14/2007 11:35:44 AM PDT by JeffAtlanta
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To: Golden Eagle
Linux acts much more like OSX than Vista does

You are again evading the point. Vista was designed to work a lot like VMS, a proprietary operating system, by former DEC employees who took their knowledge with them. Linux was designed to openly published standards for UNIX-like interoperability. So which one is the copy?

Then there's of course QDOS, which was basically an 8086 port of CP/M, but not done by DRI, the owner of CP/M. After Microsoft licensed this blatant copy, they hired away the guy who developed it from his company to port it again to the 8088 so they could call it MS-DOS. That's not a copy?

Just because Clinton removed export controls on software doesn't mean they shouldn't exist.

They exist for everyone or no one. Somebody writing software covered by ITAR would have it blocked whether it was for proprietary or free software. BTW, ITAR hurt our software industry the most, since they lost competitiveness in foreign markets due to having to sell downgraded systems overseas while local foreign companies were making fully-capable systems. This was especially true for anything using public cryptography since software developers all over the world knew how to implement it and could sell their products based on it (but we couldn't).

Ridiculous.

Not. This article is about Microsoft gearing up to squash a smaller competitor through patents.

142 posted on 05/14/2007 12:41:15 PM PDT by antiRepublicrat
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To: JeffAtlanta; Constantine XIII
To illustrate how ludicrous the process is

There are many more gems out there. The doubly-linked list (invented and openly published without patent in the 50s) was recently patented, and so is the progress bar.

What's really sad about a lot of these patents is that they are computerizing or web-izing what has already been done on paper or computer for years. Take the one against Dell a few years ago for calculating various costs associated with an order (taxes, shipping, etc.).

143 posted on 05/14/2007 12:49:01 PM PDT by antiRepublicrat
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To: antiRepublicrat
Vista was designed to work a lot like VMS...So which one is the copy?

Obviously Linux. It is a near exact foreign clone of a US product. It has spawned many other foreign clones of US products such as "Red Flag" in China. They call them "distos", and there are hundreds of them across the globe, all designed to duplicate US Unix, but without a dime back to the US.

This article is about Microsoft gearing up to squash a smaller competitor through patents.

Be the first time, but this is no small competitor, it's a worldwide gang of leftists including foreign governments that is behind much of the push for open source software. It's a testament to the quality of Microsoft's product they've been able to hold on to 90% of the market, when they are literally being assaulted by not only software pirates but these open sourcers around the world who have entire governments attempting to standardize on it, out of their pure hatred of the US leadership position in software.

You have to admire American billionaires like Bill Gates and Larry Ellison who have taken the best shots the communists and extreme leftists worldwide have dished out, with all the piracy and copyleft software, and still hold their ground. Actually on the offensive now, it appears, even China is agreeing to enforce software laws and is paying US software companies record amounts for software, something long overdue. Good for us, I support American corporations over leftist radicals and communist cloners any day of the week.

144 posted on 05/14/2007 1:46:24 PM PDT by Golden Eagle
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To: plsvn
I'm no hardware geek, but I'm under the impression even Vista cannot access more than 2.5 gigs of RAM. Getting 4 is a waste of money.

You can access a maximum of 4GB RAM on a 32 bit machine. 64 bit will take you higher.

145 posted on 05/14/2007 1:46:28 PM PDT by SeƱor Zorro ("The ability to speak does not make you intelligent"--Qui-Gon Jinn)
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To: Golden Eagle
Obviously Linux.

Really? Multiple people make an OS by going off of the same specs, and you call them copies? OpenVMS, OS X, VXWorks (runs the Mars Rover), BSD, Windows NT and others fall under this.

Yet you give a pass to the operating system that was ripped off from another using employees of the company that created it? That's twisted.

Actually, NT qualifies as a "copy" under both criteria, since it's based on VMS and is POSIX compliant.

It's a testament to the quality of Microsoft's product they've been able to hold on to 90% of the market

It's a testament to illegal monopoly practices (convicted), the spread of FUD (Microsoft admitted to this tactic) and sheer market momentum.

You have to admire American billionaires like Bill Gates and Larry Ellison who have taken the best shots the communists and extreme leftists worldwide have dished out, with all the piracy and copyleft software, and still hold their ground.

Don't lump piracy with free software. Free software gets pirated, too, by companies that don't want to have to adhere to the license. For example, Linksys/Cisco, TomTom, Asus, Gigabyte and D-Link, all found to be illegally distributing free software. But IIRC you didn't seem to mind that piracy.

Actually on the offensive now, it appears, even China is agreeing to enforce software laws and is paying US software companies record amounts for software, something long overdue.

I read about that. It is good news. Lenovo (the company you hate) recently signed a $1.3 billion deal with Microsoft, succeeding a $1.2 billion deal last year (so it isn't exactly new news).

146 posted on 05/14/2007 2:14:44 PM PDT by antiRepublicrat
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To: antiRepublicrat
Multiple people make an OS by going off of the same specs, and you call them copies?

Red Flag, the chinese government's version, is based on a direct copy of Red Hat. "Line for Line" copying, the Chinese government got it completely for free, and more where that came from. You repeatedly trying to equate some US company copying another feature, is pathetic.

Free software gets pirated, too

ROFL.

147 posted on 05/14/2007 2:37:48 PM PDT by Golden Eagle
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To: Myrddin
> ...and UNIX on the 3B20 at work (Pacific Telephone)...

Ah, the 3B-series. I had the good fortune to have a 3B2/300 desktop (a cast-off from Cornell Univ.) as my first UNIX computer, around 1985 or so. SysV, ah, those were heady days -- I had built a homebrew (wire-wrapped) Mot 6809 microcomputer a few years before, wrote a monitor and disk handlers and ran FLEX-09 on it, but once I learned C I wrote a 6809 CPU emulator for the 3B2, and that actually ran faster than the real 6809!

Anyway, there was a huge 3B20 unit (also at Cornell) that amazed me... great technology for its day.

148 posted on 05/14/2007 4:08:01 PM PDT by dayglored (Listen, strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government!)
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To: BJungNan
When a Mac crashes, you lose all work.

Strange... doesn't seem to do that here. The same applications that backup current work on a PC will do so as well on the Mac.

149 posted on 05/14/2007 5:14:57 PM PDT by Swordmaker (Remember, the proper pronunciation of IE is "AAAAIIIIIEEEEEEE)
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To: BJungNan
No, OS10.2 and they have cleaned up the fonts.

Glad to hear they finally listened to me about all those garbage fonts.

But your bosses have to be the most parsimonious people in publishing... 10.2??? That's five years old! Therefore your hardware has to be at least that old. That's about the same length of time since I've seen a Kernel Panic. How much RAM are you running?

Have you turned on the auto-backup in your software?

150 posted on 05/14/2007 5:28:41 PM PDT by Swordmaker (Remember, the proper pronunciation of IE is "AAAAIIIIIEEEEEEE)
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To: Golden Eagle
Further kookiness from these fruits, math is a numerical representation of nature, simply collecting and displaying that which happens naturally and is already there, while software is something that is developed for a purpose and has unique characteristics provided by the auhtor. These guys have been cloning other people's work and giving it away for free for years, now it looks like they may finally have to answer for it.

The latest news: MS refuses to reveal which of its patents are supposedly being violated in Linux. Makes me still happier that, after a long career in the Windows world, I went Mac three years ago. When a company stops innovating and starts suing, it's time to move on.

151 posted on 05/14/2007 6:18:41 PM PDT by BlazingArizona
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To: BlazingArizona
MS refuses to reveal which of its patents are supposedly being violated in Linux.

Other studies have been done, that showed close to 300 potential violations in the Linux kernel alone.

I went Mac three years ago.

Smart move steering clear of Linux, Apple is a US company and a technically better product too.

152 posted on 05/14/2007 7:09:02 PM PDT by Golden Eagle
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To: Golden Eagle
Other studies have been done, that showed close to 300 potential violations in the Linux kernel alone.

So to return to my question: why isn't MS specifying what is being violated? Looks to me as though they are repeating the antics of its discredited and delisted former patent troll subsidiary, SCO.

In the long run, I actually count this as good news. It hastens the collapse of the American intellectual property system, which has now become the laughingstock of the world. Good riddance!

153 posted on 05/14/2007 7:32:54 PM PDT by BlazingArizona
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To: BlazingArizona

It does look like “SCO II: The Bagman Revealed”


154 posted on 05/14/2007 8:07:35 PM PDT by D-fendr
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To: Golden Eagle
"Line for Line" copying, the Chinese government got it completely for free,

Yes, I know, and if they'd paid for it that would have been fine with you. But since they got it for free, the same way Red Hat got the kernel and most of the utilities for free (and thus is a company employing Americans), you don't like it.

But you still try to avoid the point. How is Linux any more of a "copy" than NT or DOS?

ROFL.

No, software piracy. I do believe you've defended these pirates before.

155 posted on 05/14/2007 8:29:43 PM PDT by antiRepublicrat
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To: Golden Eagle; BlazingArizona
Smart move steering clear of Linux, Apple is a US company and a technically better product too.

OS X includes a LOT of open source software, even GPL software found in almost every Linux distro, which is likely subject to the same patents.

BTW, currently Linux is faster on the same box. OS X has some inefficiencies that slow it down.

156 posted on 05/14/2007 8:47:42 PM PDT by antiRepublicrat
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To: antiRepublicrat

What’s impressive is that OS X gets faster with each release - while adding features.


157 posted on 05/14/2007 8:50:14 PM PDT by D-fendr
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To: D-fendr
What’s impressive is that OS X gets faster with each release - while adding features.

Definitely is. The obvious thing is that they've been moving the UI processing to the GPU more with each generation. By Leopard the CPU won't have much at all to do with the UI. But they have done a lot of tightening and tweaking in the kernel to speed things up too.

As far as adding things, that impresses me too. They advertise this massive Core Animation to make things fly around, warp and morph all over the place -- but they're nice enough to make sure that will all happen on the GPU instead of slowing down your system.

I know people running four+ year-old G4s who say it's faster running Tiger than Jaguar. Show me that with Vista.

158 posted on 05/14/2007 8:56:14 PM PDT by antiRepublicrat
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To: antiRepublicrat

I’m one of those G4 folks. Have one small client with a network of 4 G4s with a G5 (PPC) server. Got the G4s used for less that $500 each. I just keep upgrading the OS and apps. Quite economical - plenty fast enough, stable, secure, extremely low maintenance.

Eventually the whole thing will have to move to MacTel. Even faster I hear, but I hate the bleeding edge. Hopefully by then, there’s no glitches and, heck, maybe I can get’em some used intel boxes.

What might be most interesting is what happens in the high-end PC market when the whole idea of “buy a Mac and run Windows or OS X - or both” filters through. IMHO, and others, that could be the biggest desktop industry shakeup in decades....


159 posted on 05/14/2007 9:10:21 PM PDT by D-fendr
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To: Swordmaker
Have you turned on the auto-backup in your software?

Auto back up is me hitting save frequently. One of the people working with me turned on the auto-save and it slowed the computer down way too much. He turned it off.

160 posted on 05/14/2007 11:25:27 PM PDT by BJungNan
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