Ronn!Blankenship wrote:
* In the late '90s, Microsoft secretly developed its own version
  of Linux, but shelved it after quality control researchers
  deemed it "too stable."

I can debunk this one. First of all: 70s/80s, Unix not Linux, Not Secret. During the Unix Wars when there were a large number of Unix versions with different names Microsoft ported one to certain PC flavors named Xenix. Microsoft had no intention of selling it themselves, but subsequently resold licenses to Xenix to several smaller companies and OEMs to market and sell themselves.


The best selling Xenix distribution was SCO Xenix. SCO is well known now for being "litigious bastards". Eventually they ended up purchasing the last remaining remnants of the original AT&T Unix properties, well after the Unix source and brand had been too widely diffused, and then used those patents and copyrights to sue just about every other Unix distribution.

http://www.unix.org/what_is_unix/history_timeline.html
http://www.ugu.com/sui/ugu/show?I=xenix.history&F=1111111111&G=Y

--
--Max Battcher--
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The WorldMaker.Network: Now more Caffeinated!
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