Comments on: NetApp files patent suit against Sun

Network Appliance alleges Sun Microsystems' ZFS storage software violates seven of its patents, seeks permanent injunction.

[Karl Viklund]

permanent injunction

Permanent injunction. LOL... Get over your software patents US...

[WJeansonne]

Another Reason to Avoid Free Open Source Technology

You will see more and more of these cases as companies that were once purely open source move to the commercial open realm and begin to assert their intellectual property rights. It was only a matter of time, since the maintenance model does not bring in sufficient capital.

[zoredache]

re: Another Reason to Avoid Free Open Source Technology

}}} You will see more and more of these cases as companies that were once purely open source move to the commercial open realm and begin to assert their intellectual property rights.

What are you talking about? Neither Sun, or Netapp started off as an 'purely' open source company, and they aren't a 'purely' open source company now.

[enovikoff]

Microsoft Shill?

Running around claiming that for-pay software is the only way to go sounds like you're being paid off by Microsoft. Just from a numbers perspective, the amount of software in use in the world that is open source is exploding, especially outside the US, where people won't pay Microsoft/Oracle/etc pricing levels and either pirate software or use open source software. Because of this, anyone who claims that for-pay software, in the old lock-you-in-or-you-will-be-sorry model, is on its way out. You can claim that for-pay is a better model, but it's dying, just like the old record-company dominated media market. In addition, there are passionate, open-hearted people out there working their ***** off to provide high-quality open source software, developed from scratch to avoid copyright issues and insulate from lawsuits... specifically because they want to break the old paradigm. It's days are numbered.

You can claim that it's better to go with for-pay because of the lawsuits you might be exposed to, but with the demographics I pointed out above, it will soon be the for-pay software companies that will bear the brunt of the suits, and they won't be able to afford them.

But, fortunately, this isn't an either-or proposition. There are a number of companies, Sun included, that are trying to create a hybrid model of software development in which the ideas and core software are in the public domain and customers still pay for support and business-specific enhancements. Value is moving from the shrink-wrapped software into full solutions to business problems, with SaaS in the mix. This is where I think things are going.