Oh please..Linux poses very little threat to Vista at this point..... Now Linux has the potential to challenge Windows on the desktop, but it will take probably 5 years before we see any serious erosion in the desktop. Linux poses a challenge to Windows on the server side.
----- Original Message ---- From: Andrew Lentvorski <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Main Discussion List for KPLUG <[email protected]> Cc: Craig Fujimoto <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; ed brill <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, May 19, 2007 7:04:26 PM Subject: Re: Three Scenarios For How Microsoft's Open Source Threat Could End -- Microsoft Takes On Open Source Randall Shimizu wrote: > For Microsoft to claim patent violations and then to refuse to > identify them is the height of arrogance. This amounts to nothing > less than corporate blackmail Um ... like ... DUH. Look, this is all about the lack of Vista uptake. My guess is that more than a few mid-size businesses are threatening Microsoft with Linux. Vista is actually painful enough that Linux is probably on the radar. Vista needs major hardware upgrades. Vista doesn't support a lot of hardware. Vista locks down non-compliant hardware. Vista changes a lot of UI interaction. In short, Linux is probably comparable in terms of hardware support and has the bonus of *not* requiring major hardware upgrades. So, if you have to retrain your users, you might as well look at Linux. This isn't about the big guns, and it isn't about individual users. It is an extortion threat to mid-size companies--"Threaten us with Linux and you may see lawyers rather than a price break." > It's hard to see how the Linux interface violates the MS patents when > they originally licensed it from Xerox Parc. Basically Microsoft's > theory is that everything that they extend and embrace becomes their > intellectual property. Microsoft incoporated code from IBM's Lan > Server and then claimed it was their IP. Well let's remember that OpenOffice was owned by Star Division GMBH (Now owned by Sun). So my guess is that they had their own agreements with Microsoft. Sun & MS also have a cross licensing agreement. Maybe, maybe not. However, I *guarantee* that OpenOffice violates some Microsoft patents. Those are Microsoft formats and have *something* they patented in them. Microsoft doesn't have to shut down Linux. It just needs to stop interoperability with Office. That's just as good. If you can't migrate your Office documents, you can't convert your business to Linux. If you can't migrate your old documents, then Microsoft pulls things along until Vista gets entrenched. It's all about this quarter and the next. > Microsoft has stated that they would prefer to license than litigate > it's patent disputes with OSS and Linux. So basically MS is hoping to > generate enough FUD to coerce companies into licensing OSS and Linux > software. Hopefully the EU will show more guts than the DOJ has. Most of the EU doesn't have software patents so can safely ignore this completely. This is basically directed at American companies. Microsoft's current action would seem to give the anti-software patent forces a huge boost. I read the current Microsoft action as an acknowledgment that they think that they will not get software patents passed anywhere else so they might as well get some money out of what they do have. -a -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
