Comments on: Microsoft agitates for open-source patent pacts

Company's more threatening stance spotlights its effort to pressure open-source firms to license its patents.

[ds9824]

Hot air - from a dying monopoly

Bill Gates was smart-he knew when to quit. He left the greedy and litigationists behind.



Innovation now clearly comes from the open source community and Linux, and the power behind that will overwhelm MS.



But for the sake of discussing who might litigate whom, let's look at a list of what Microsoft "stole" from others:



Wordperfect -> MS Word

Visicalc -> Excel

Xerox and Apple -> Windows

Unix -> multitasking and user magagement

..

etc., the list goes on and on.



But here are the real mistakes that Microsoft has just made:



- It has indirectly admitted that Linux is viable and powerful

- It has irreversibly destroyed the perception of being "cool".



Why does that matter? Well, when MS started, it was the little man's tool agains "big blue" (IBM) and people jumped on the bandwagon. This underdog role now falls to Linux, thanks to MS's posturing. Plus, the best software developers usually want to work on the "coolest stuff" (programmer's lingo for cutting edge, popular) and MS now definitely looks like the "pouting second."



Ubuntu with Firefox, Openoffice, and Evolution meets the needs of most people.


Dell created a web site to get find out what users wanted most, and what did it turn out to be? Linux on Dell computers!



MS can't suppress what people want forever, and this latest move shows just how desperate they have become. I'm not impressed.



posted with Ubuntu 7.04

[Phillep_H]

Extortion

What they are trying for is called "rent seeking". MS wants to force people who owe MS nothing at all to pay for using their own computers. A protection racket on a global scale.

[jfm]

IP rights......

The whole Idea of IP patent's are wrong! Being there are only so many ways of doing something there should be no patents allowed. All this tends to do is stifle competition. No matter how you write a program your sure to violate someones IP. If nothing else these patents should be limited to the same as any other Manufactured product.

[iZune]

Always Apple's Fault

Everything is Apple's fault.

[Ted Bruner]

Hitler, Himmler; Gates, Balmer

Be it business or nations, bullies - unchecked - will continue to push their senseless wars on everyone until they are finally destroyed, ... why? because they cannot and will not be controlled.
The technological world needs to learn from history before undreamed destruction of data and processing is realized by those unwilling to acknowledge simple truths. Those who do not learn from history will end up repeating it. M$ has never relented in its unending quest to grasp and destroy its real or imagined "enemies". Beware, world; M$ will continue to plunder and threaten because they now know they are bigger than governments. Each day they grow more vile and ambitious, and each day users' ability to function without interruption or total attack is eroded.

My fir$t encounter with Vi$ta happened this Saturday in St. Joe, MO at an Office Max. The salesman started up a nice new notebook for me until I noticed the "Vista" label and informed him that I had no interest in that OS because of its radical, senseless attacks on those who try to buy and use it. He, sheepishly, agreed that he uses only XP at home, but that the store must sell (by force? - No doubt) Vi$ta.

Before our conversation got any further, Vi$ta had attacked the store demo and "offered" to reduce or shut down. I laughed, shook my head, waved my hands, ... and left.

M$ followers: you are being loyal to a tyrant who has no loyalty to you at all. They are out to buy or destroy everything in their sight - as before; except the new enemy is the users, or as M$ calls them: Pirates!

Thanks but no thanks. I'm bailing. I quit programming with the advent of DOS 6.x and am glad I did. Now I must seek something to do with my time and talents, but bowing to Gates/Balmer is not it.

[suyts]

Your talent

would probably be better put to use with some crayons and a room with some padded walls. MS is a very good business, nothing more and nothing less. They are not a government. Also, I have no misconceptions that they will be "loyal" to me. They are "loyal" to me as long as I pay them money. I will continue to do business with them as long as they provide the product I require. If either of us cease this behavior, then the loyalty from either side ceases. This is known to both parties. Apparently, you have found something to do since the advent of DOS 6.x. Nice to have you back. Perhaps you can use your talents writing fictional literature.

[Ted Bruner]

I returned to St. Joe last weekend...

... the same laptop is there, and it is still saying it does not have a "genuine" copy! They offered to knock off $150 USD if I'd buy it off the rack.

They can't seem to get rid of it, and they are reluctant to "phone home" because if they sell it, the customer will be the "next pirate".

What a racket!

This was on December 15, 2007.

[Ted Bruner]

While reviewing history...

Let us not forget the technological side of M$ history. How did they become so rich and powerful?
I know, for space' sake I must be extremely simplistic, yet the facts can and must speak for themselves upon investigation.
In the '70's and very early '80's, computers were the domain of only the most heavily funded businesses.
Then came Apple, Atari, Singer, Adam, et al (inter alia). Most of them were mere visual games - just TV and some buttons, and instant entertainment. Apple crossed over into a video display with memory and a keyboard. Radio Shack also made a few offerings, but most were confined to geeks who wanted to learn programming (Basic) or wanted to play games. Later, with the addition of tape players, customers could write and edit documents; set up a digital file system for cooking receipes, and other "status" bits and pieces.

IBM first started the real ball rolling with the PC-Jr; a small version of the "Big Blue" that couldn't do much when compared to its big brother, but it kicked down the walls for people to think of computers in the home as well as business - machines that would really do stuff rather than play games and type a letter - if you could wait 20 minutes for the program to load, then find the proper starting place for the document on tape.

The market was ready to invest. Apples were selling for around $3,500 USD. They were slow and cumbersome, but they were in colour and they showed some promise of working and usability.

Then the explosion came with the flood of PC-Clones. That's right, there were IBM imatators running rampant. Some effort was made to stop the horrible problem of cheap substitutes for real IBM computers; but the PC-Jr was pricey and it could not do what the clones were claiming they could do.

C/PM, Basic, Fortran, CoBal, and lots of other things began appearing on the horizon - many of them also "clones" or "pirated copies" of originals long lost. The rush was on to "standardize" the clones into some usable relm of usability. I saw many copies produced at Commodore User Group meetings.

The rush was growing exponentially, and ASCII seemed the only way to stem the growing tide of diversity. Remember that???

Finally, Bill Gates came up with a DOS which seemed to handle the best the clones had to offer. DOS 2.11 became a "Standard" and owners of most cheap clones could buy, or find a copy somewhere. Then came ShoeBox, and WordStar, and WordPerfect, and Lotus, and SuperCalc, and dBASE.

Once the cheap hardware was broadly available, and the copies of DOS and other programs could be had; the exponential growth really took hold.

The rush has continued, memory has grown faster than our understanding of why we need so much. ASCII is replaced with bitmapped fonts. We can now capture video and put it on paper (first in b/w and only on InkJet printers - 9 to 24 pin printers could not handle the details). The 80k 5.25" floppy was replaced by the 1.4. 3.5" Diskette, then the 2mb HDD, then 10 mb ... now 500gb!)

My point in this is that without the rapid growth of cheap "pirated" clones which a larger section of people could afford, M$ would not be what they are today. DEC/VAX would still probably still be the leading OS for businesses; followed by OS-2 or 3 or 4. Graphics would not be as advanced because it isn't important for business to be as innovative if it is still perceived to be ahead of general ability of the public.

Like it or not; deny or accept it; Redmond owes its "success" to cheap copies that DOS could populate to encourage masses of people to buy and upgrade to what we had hoped to have today - a multi-functional, sophisticated community of people and machines working together to produce untold wealth in data and design - improving every possible aspect of life as we know it.

Instead, as is true with all Megalomaniacs, corporate or personal, we are now facing increasing battles from the Mother$hip, which is attacking our vessels, boarding them, throwing our cargo overboard and sinking our boats without cause, and claiming we're all pirates.

WGA was bad enough, but Vi$ta is truly the work of the mad scientists. It disables the customer before they even get started. It disables floor demonstrators - right in the stores dedicated to sell M$ products. Is M$ concerned???? Nah! It's what they want. They are terrorizing people into believing they must purchase inferior products, then face the shutdown, on M$' whim; and they think this is acceptable! They are not ashamed of this failure because they are already setting their sights on other users of other programs.

The only agenda on Balmers' sick brain, now and forever, is the WehrMachen he sees himself as being.

Is there a solution? I'm not optimistic, but I do see that the rich beginnings of M$, ... from inexpensive clones and copies are being dried up. The "market" of ignorant enthusiasts of the '80's and '90's is replaced by people who have learned something from their use of the computers either they, or their friends have been using, and the trend is away from M$, ... to Mac, or Linnux, or to nothing at all until this mess is resolved.

Balmer is not listening. Are you?

[Sumatra-Bosch]

Excellent History!

Could you count the Web as the contemporary analogue to DOS 2.11?

[Sumatra-Bosch]

MSFT to World: You Owe Us. A Lot. Just Let Us Tell You How Much

My plumber just called and said he had a patent on the sink. Couldn't tell me exactly what patent but he assured me if I came in and negotiated a deal I could probably wash my dishes tonight without facing a court injunction. Most likely. There was a distinct probability I could do that. There were, of course, no guarantees there weren't other infringements that needed to be negotiated, like the drain on the dish washer. Even though I don't use it, he said I could buy a waiver from him if I went through the disuse certifying process which he would be happy to apply for $10,000 and maybe throw in a disuse certification for the toilet. Oh, I use that? Hmmmm, interesting, he said, saying his lawyers would be in touch before hanging up.

[Fil0403]

Ignorants 2 MS:U Owe Nothing.U Hav Right 2 Nothing.Let Us Show Our Ignoranc

It's called "law". Ever heard of it? Of course not, how could an ignorant who never had any idea worth selling know what that is?

[John Kuzak]

other infringements

http://www.analogstereo.com/volvo_s60_owners_manual.htm

[Fil0403]

Open-source steals (again) from Microsoft

So I guess Microsoft is to blame here, of course, as always.

P. S.: Switch "Microsoft" for "Apple" or "Google" and commnts will be the other way around.

[MSSlayer]

Proof?

Do you believe everything Uncle Bill says even though he can't produce any proof that these alleged patent are valid and being violated?

[Fil0403]

Open-source steals (again) from Microsoft

So I guess Microsoft is to blame here, of course, as always.

P. S.: Switch "Microsoft" for "Apple" or "Google" and commnts will be the other way around.

[MSSlayer]

This is so sad

MS has a documented history of abusing and lying to its customers, yet people believe any claims, even though they provided no proof.

It is pathetic how stupid our society has become.

[Wander9s]

Let sue Microsoft

Microsoft is the one stealing people ideas and bundle into its productions. Look back in time... Microsoft steals lot people ideas and productions, and makes its own productions. I think this is a time to sue Microsoft. Sue them to split them out as Operation System and Software development. SPLIT MICROSOFT OUT.